


So Sweet; Answer Like This

by barnabashale



Series: Changing the View [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Coming Out, Gay Jay (Disney), M/M, Missing Scene, Pining, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 73,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24589399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barnabashale/pseuds/barnabashale
Summary: “Why are you so obsessed with de Vil?” Mal said, one day. They were sitting in the back of their Advanced Schemes 1 class and he was throwing balled up pieces of paper at the back of Carlos’s head two rows in front of him.“What?” Jay said, frowning at her.“You’re, like, really obsessed with him,” she said, doodling in her notebook.Jay fell in love with a boy when he was 12 years old, and he could never seem to shake it. Time moves on, though, and for the next decade he tries to adapt to it.
Relationships: Gil/Jay (Disney: Descendants), Harry Hook/Jay, Jay & Li Lonnie, Jay & Mal (Disney), Jay/Carlos de Vil
Series: Changing the View [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768702
Comments: 34
Kudos: 114





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> _입이 닿을 때 난 녹아버려  
>  (when you touch my lips, i melt)  
> 내가 닿을 때 넌 놓아버려  
> (when i touch you, you let go)  
> 아무도 모르게 이렇게 훔치고 싶어  
> (without anyone knowing, i want to steal you)  
> I wanna steal you baby  
> I wanna eat you up baby_
> 
> _So sweet, answer like this_  
>  So sweet, answer like this
> 
> title from strawberry by dalsooobin

Jay had been in love with Carlos as long as he’d known him. Not as long as he’d known _of_ him, of course. He’d known of Carlos since he started school, dragged onto the campus of Dragon Hall screaming by his mother. Jay hadn’t really given him a second look back then. He didn’t really _know_ Carlos until he saw him smile for the first time.

They were in the sixth grade, doing gym class down in the basement of Dragon Hall. They were doing chasing-and-running-away practice. Carlos had been teamed up with Jay. He wasn’t very good at catching Jay, he generally was winded halfway through the tombs, but when they switched places Jay couldn’t seem to catch Carlos, even though Jay was in the middle of a growth spurt and had like a half a foot over the small boy. He was fast, and at the end of the tombs he’d be struggling to catch his breath but Jay couldn’t catch him before he’d made it to ‘safety.’ It wasn’t until their third lap when Jay, hyped up on adrenaline, managed to grab him around the waist, jolting him back into his chest.

Jay laughed, adrenaline spiking with excitement at finally catching Carlos. He was so full of weird, delirious energy he twirled the both of them around in victory. When he finally let go of Carlos he realized Carlos was laughing, too. Breathless and jittery. Jay felt something spark in his chest at the sigh of Carlos’s scrunched up expression, his flushed cheeks, wide grin. It was like he was seeing him for the first time, like he hadn’t gone to school with him for years. He was taking in deep, gasping breaths around his laughter. Jay smiled at him, and when Carlos looked at him he smiled, too. Jay felt like his heart was going to explode, suddenly and violently, so he pushed Carlos to the ground. Carlos gave him a weird look.

“I got you,” Jay said.

“Yeah, you did,” Carlos said. “Let’s see if you can do it again.” And he pushed himself off from the ground and took off running down the length of the tombs. Jay grinned after him, pausing before running after him.

He caught him more easily after that, Carlos was clearly tired out. He let Carlos catch him on the final lap, slowing as Carlos grabbed the back of his shirt. He could’ve wrenched it out of his grip easily but instead he slowed to a stop. Standing still and staring at Carlos who was still smiling, hand gripping the back of his shirt.

“I got you?” Carlos said, still giving him that weird look. Suspicious but also like he didn’t really care. His cheeks were still so pink.

“Yeah,” Jay said. “This is lame, isn’t it?”

Carlos snorted. “It is.”

The gym teacher yelled at them to keep going, Jay told him they were done, this was their last lap. They were dismissed. Carlos left without another word to Jay, and Jay watched him jog to the stairs. He felt wholly unsettled by the whole situation, if not a bit... Giddy. He felt changed, too, somehow by the boy’s flushed, freckled cheeks and his breathless laughter. He just didn’t have the vocabulary to describe how.

He sat down and waited for Mal to finish, he usually walked with her to their next class together, and she was currently chasing down her partner, Yzla, before tackling her down. She grinned smugly at her, and it wasn’t like how he had smiled at Carlos at all, all giddy and childish. He felt embarrassed, hoping no one had seen the two of them.

-

Jay was still young enough to think it was worth asking his dad for advice. He was his father after all, Jay thought he should be able to look for him for help with more than just plotting evil schemes to regain his old place of power. So he asked him about the heart bursting lightning feeling he’d felt.

“Dad, what would it mean if someone made you feel like... Like your chest was going to just explode,” he’d said, poking at the soup his dad had made for dinner. Usually canned goods would go right on the shelves to be sold but his dad must have been feeling overly lavish that day and decided to treat his son to something half decent for dinner.

Jafar was counting and recounting his coins. “You’re finally at that age, huh?” he said, forlorn. Jay began to doubt his decision to ask his dad about this on a night where he was clearly feeling so... Sentimental wasn’t the word, but. Something like that. “Girls will do that to you, I suppose, but you can’t fall for it- that feeling should be avoided in yourself and exploited in others.”

“What is that feeling?” Jay asked, confused. And what if it wasn’t a girl who did that to me? He didn’t ask that, feeling out the situation.

“Attraction, love, crushes, or whatever you kids call it,” his father waved a hand dismissively. “It’s all the same—a weakness. Don’t let it control you.” He looked at Jay. “You’ll be a handsome young man, I know this, you’ll be able to use it to control girls, get what you want out of them.” Jafar chuckled.

Jay nodded, slowly. He thought of how he let Carlos catch him in their last lap. “So it’s just like... a trick?”

“Exactly,” Jafar said, nodding. 

Jay felt doubly embarrassed now, that he’d fallen for Carlos’s trick. Carlos was a year younger than him, one day a couple years earlier he’d just shown up in their classes, telling the teachers that the other classes for kids his age were just too easy. Maybe he was going to just push himself forward to the seventh grade, too, if he was somehow already pulling this shit over Jay of all people. His EQ must be crazy high, maybe even higher than Mal’s. 

Jay decided then not to let Carlos trick him ever again.

-

So Jay was really mean to Carlos. He was mean to a lot of people, he was a villain after all, but he made sure to be just that much more mean to Carlos, to make sure he knew he couldn’t trick him again.

“Why are you so obsessed with de Vil?” Mal said one day. They were sitting in the back of their Advanced Schemes 1 class and he was throwing balled up pieces of paper at the back of Carlos’s head two rows in front of him.

“What?” Jay said, frowning at her.

“You’re, like, really obsessed with him,” she said, doodling in her notebook.

“I am not,” Jay said, throwing a balled up piece of paper at her next.

“What, do you have a crush on him?” Mal said, smirking.

“Gross, no!” Jay said, shoving her. Mal laughed.

“Little Jay’s got a boyfriend, huh? Hey, de Vil!” Mal said, grabbing a paper ball and throwing it at Carlos, too. He continued to ignore them. “de Vil! I’m talking to you!”

Carlos glared over his shoulder. Jay kind of thought it was a little badass that Carlos was smaller than them all and younger but he still acted like the other kids were nothing to worry about. He’d been beat up on enough to know that wasn’t true, though, surely. “Can you guys shut up, I’m trying to work here.”

Mal laughed but let it go as their teacher arrived. Jay felt relieved.

-

In a few years it seemed most everyone had made it to that age, as his father had said. He was fifteen and he’d grown tall and strong, handsome just like his father had said. He was mastering the art of exploiting this, and he brought home a lot of goods for the store through flirting with girls with acceptable jewelry and hair clips. School books were always good, too, kids always needed those. One time he’d scored some nice lighters that had more than half the fuel in them left by flirting with the girls who smoked behind the school. It was easy, he found. He didn’t feel that horrible tight-chested thunder and lightning feeling when he flirted with girls. His dad warned him again once when he brought home a nice broach he’d taken off an evil step-granddaughter that he was “playing a dangerous game” with a reminder to not get his heart or anything too caught up in any of this. Jay didn’t feel like his heart was involved at all.

Which wasn’t the case to be said about his Carlos situation. After years of being especially nasty to him it took a horrible turn for the worse. One day Jay would admit that being especially mean to him never actually did anything good for him, and it was really just an excuse to be close to him in an acceptable way. But not yet. What he did know was that when he’d made Carlos cry that was. Something else.

Jay hadn’t meant to. He was just not having a good day, he hadn’t managed to steal anything good in the marketplace that morning, getting caught with his hand in a woman’s purse and chased all the way to school. Mal was at home sick, which he shouldn’t have cared about but he did. So he made sure to bump into Carlos as much as possible that day, shoving him into lockers, tripping him. The situation reached its peak in gym class, of course. They were playing dodgeball and Jay was specifically targeting Carlos, even though the boy was pretty good at dodging, Jay kept going after him.

Then he got him square in the face.

Their teammates, even the ones on Carlos’s team, whooped in excitement as Carlos shouted in surprise. He put a hand on his cheek and Jay grinned smugly at him. Carlos glared at him, eyes shining wet and Jay saw his nose was bleeding.

“Fuck you, Jay!” Carlos said, storming from the gym even as the teacher yelled at him to get back.

Jay didn’t feel good. But he ignored it, accepting high fives from his teammates. He wasn’t supposed to feel good, anyway.

-

Jay happened upon Carlos in the bathroom. Carlos was crying. Jay had never really seen him cry, he always acted like nothing affected him. Now he was glaring at his reflection in the mirror, cheeks red and one side of his face swollen, and he was crying. Carlos looked over at Jay when he entered and glared at him.

“Gonna beat me up now?” he spat. 

Jay was frozen, Carlos looked like he hated him right then. Jay knew all about hate, he saw it when his father went on his rants about what used to be and the people who took all the good things in his life away from him, his wealth, his status, his power. He thought all the guys in school probably hated him because he was better looking and cooler than them, but he hadn’t felt something like this directed at him before. Something like whatever was in Carlos’s glare.

“Uh, no,” Jay said, and Carlos shook his head, turning on the faucet and splashing the brown-tinted water on his face. He looked better now that he’d cleaned off the tears, rubbing his face dry with the sleeve of his jacket. Jay felt sick, his chest tight.

“Well, I’m leaving then,” Carlos said, shoving past Jay.

“Wait!” Jay said, grabbing his arm and Carlos spun around and glared at him, standing chest to chest. Well, not quite, Carlos was much shorter than Jay. He hadn’t grown much in the last few years, unlike Jay. But he was close, and that sent lightning through Jay’s blood. Usually Jay would have to be enacting some sort of mild violence against Carlos to be this close to him.

“Leave me alone, Jay,” Carlos said. “I don’t know what your fucking problem with me is, but get over it.”

Jay’s heart was pounding. “Okay,” he choked out. Carlos looked a bit surprised at that response and then he gave him a weird look. The same weird look from years earlier. He shook his head, though, and left. Jay let him, letting Carlos’s arm slip from his grasp. Jay felt cold all over after he left.

He realized in a dizzying rush that his dad had been right, about feelings and how they could be exploited. Jay exploited other’s feelings to steal things: trinkets and books and status. Carlos had, too. Stolen something with a simple breathless laugh in gym class years ago and Jay didn’t think he realized it. He probably didn’t even know he’d stolen something so precious from Jay. Jay felt like saying just his heart had been taken wasn’t quite strong enough, as he stood there frozen in Carlos’s wake he felt like he’d taken more. 

Jay took a breath to steel himself. This was fine, he’d just have to find a way to live like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to part 2, we’re taking it far back now and into jay’s mind 😇
> 
> i am avoiding doing too much retelling of the events of the three films and the first isle of the lost book and will be glazing over them in this fic when they do happen. i would recommend having read the isle of the lost by melissa de la cruz. my boyfriend hasn’t, though, and didn’t seem too confused. i do directly lift some dialogue from it, but i will point that out when i do, not tryin to plagiarize miss de la cruz without crediting her 😇
> 
> anyway really short first chapter but i’ll probably post again today bc i don’t want to do my summer coursework ! ✌🏽 15 chapters is just a guess, the first draft is at ~50k words rn and i probably have another 20k to write. that’s also a fun idea of how long this is :) i just love jay!


	2. Two

It was a warm day and Jay was fifteen years old. He climbed up onto the balcony of the Bargain Castle, which felt as easy and natural to him at this point as walking up the steps to his own house. 

“Mal, Mal!” He called. He heard her cursing from inside the castle. “Maaaaal!” Jay hissed.

Mal came to the balcony shortly after, looking tired and annoyed. It was a bit past 10PM, but Jay didn’t really think that was late at all. He hadn’t really expected her to be asleep. “What do you want, Jay?” she asked.

“What, you need your beauty sleep?” Jay laughed and Mal scowled at him.

“Get to the point,” Mal said, yawning.

“I heard from Harriet that the pirates are having some sort of party tonight, let’s crash it and loot the place,” he said.

Mal looked unconvinced. “You just _heard_ it from Harriet?” she asked, raising a brow.

“I was trying to steal her necklace and she happened to mention it,” Jay said, shrugging.

“Did you get the necklace?” Mal asked.

“No, that’s why we have to go,” Jay said. “Come onnnnn, it’ll be fun.”

“Fun? I don’t think so, I don’t do parties,” Mal turned to leave.

“Come on, Shrimpy and her gang will be there and we can bother them, won’t that be fun? We haven’t really messed with pirate territory in a while,” Jay said. Mal seemed to consider this.

“Okay, messing with Shrimpy does sound kind of fun...” and Jay grinned at her, knowing he’d won. He’d had a crappy day of stealing and knew that his dad wouldn’t be happy to have him return with just a dumb plastic ring he’d managed to take from Harriet Hook before she caught onto him and a couple broken useless wands from some stall in the marketplace. Jay was just keeping those as trading barter with Mal anyway, that old magic shit sold quick at the Bargain Castle to Maleficent’s deluded clientele but just took up shelf space at the Junk Shop, collecting dust. “Fine,” Mal said. “Just let me get dressed.” She was just wearing a pair of drawstring shorts and a old tee shirt at that moment, with the logo of something neither of them knew, something from Auradon. Jay laughed at her and she flipped him off before disappearing back into the castle.

After she dressed in something leather and purple the two of them headed out towards the other side of the isle, towards Pirate territory. The party was in some sort of dilapidated building nearby Ursula’s fish and chips. Mal snickered.

“I guess they really did sink their ship, huh?” she said. “I thought they’d have the party there.”

“Where’d they even get a ship?” Jay said. ‘Pirate’ was a very figurative term on the island. While the Hooks did live on the beached, mostly destroyed ship of their father’s none of the pirate gangs, not Uma’s Serpent Prep crew nor Harriet’s Dragon Hall posse actually had a ship of their own. Word had gone around that the Serpent Prep pirates did have a ship, though, but then just as quickly Jay had heard the rumor that they had sunk it.

“I don’t know, but of course Shrimpy would sink it,” Mal laughed. “Probably trying to get to Auradon or something stupid like that.”

Jay laughed with her. The two of them climbed the rusting, creaking old fire escape that led up to where they could hear the loud music of a party going on. The building looked ripped from some sort of city, mismatched next to the cobblestone building next to it that looked out of medieval times.

They slipped in through a window, and Jay cringed at the sound of the pirates singing their ear piercing shanties. Mal mimicked gagging.

“I really don’t know how the Hooks managed to amass such a collection of pirates,” she said.

“Let’s find something to drink,” Jay said, “I wont last long enough here to steal a single thing without a some cider.”

The two walked confidently through the pirates, drawing some stares which didn’t slow them down. They found drinks soon enough, filling up cracked plastic cups with the overly sweet cider from a barrel.

“Jay! Decided to crash the party?” Came a laugh. Harriet Hook stood next to Sammy Smee, a nice brass-looking goblet in her hand, adorned with cracked glass ‘gems.’

“Yeah, didn’t think we were done earlier,” Jay said, giving Harriet a suggestive look. Mal rolled her eyes but Harriet giggled.

“Maybe later,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re cute, Jay.” She pat him on the cheek before she left, disappearing into the crowd laughing.

“You’re out of your league, there, Jay,” Mal said, frowning. “She’s older, she’s not gonna fall for your usual tricks.”

“I love a challenge,” Jay said, taking a big swig of his drink before refilling it.

“Okay, let’s make this a challenge, then,” Mal said, eyes glinting green. “I dare you to steal...” she scanned the room. “Desiree’s earrings.”

“Easy,” Jay said.

“We’re just starting, right?” Mal said, with a wicked smile.

“Okay, I dare you to steal Harriet’s goblet,” he said, Mal barked out a laugh in surprise.

“Not really playing fair, I see, but it’s no challenge for me,” Mal shrugged.

“We’re villains, Mal. What’s fair?” Jay laughed as he retreated into the crowd, making his way towards one of Uma’s pirate crew, Desiree. The earrings weren’t too hard to get. It really had been a while since Jay and Mal had really messed with any of the kids from Serpent Prep so the once boiling bad blood had simmered down to the standard thrill of rivalry. He flirted with her and she responded in turn, cocky in that way pirates were even when he was actively robbing them. It wasn’t long before he’d pocketed the fake-gold hoops she wore. When he met up with Mal not too long later she was sipping from Harriet’s goblet, a smirk on her lips.

“Okay,” Jay said, smirking. “I see we’re not playing around.”

“We are not,” Mal said. And the dares continued, getting more and more absurd. Within the hour Mal had Gil’s bracelets of shell beads hidden on her wrists underneath her leather jacket sleeves, and a weird little skull with glass beads in the eye sockets that some pirate had been showing off stuffed inside it. As well she’d pocketed a broken old phone she’d just found somewhere during their ‘wildcard’ round. Jay had got all of the colorful plastic beads from CJ Hook’s hair, after distracting her by asking about the maps on her tights, touching her legs as he picked the beads off of her braids one by one. Mal had been disgusted and impressed. As well he’d got Sammy Smee’s shoes, somehow, which made Mal laugh so hard she almost snorted cider out her nose.

He grabbed a small collection of family photos from someone’s pocket for the wildcard round, “they’ll want these back, and they’ll just have to pay,” he’d explained cheerfully while Mal laughed, on her third cider. 

“Absolutely wicked, Jay,” she’d complimented. It felt good to relax and mess around with Mal, and he was getting work done which was nice. The light buzz of the cider was making everything feel a bit foggy and dreamy, Jay’s worries from earlier in the day fading away.

After a game of ‘who can grab the most wallets’ which was mostly just for fun, none of these kids had money, they found themselves nearing the dangerous part of the room. They weren’t scared of Uma, of course, but they’d been avoiding her for the party. They wouldn’t be so discreet after she realized they’d crashed it. Mal had somehow not alerted Gil to her presence when taking his bracelets, which had left Jay impressed. But now there was a coincidental split in the crowd of pirates and at one end was Jay and Mal, laughing and counting their wallets, and at the other was Uma lounging on a couch, flanked as always by Harry Hook and Gil. Gil was laughing, joking loudly with some nearby pirates, Harry looked bored, frowning at Uma while she somehow looked even more bored. She sat up suddenly, locking eyes with Jay. Her gaze quickly moved to his side, where Mal stood. She grinned, standing up on the couch.

“Well, well, well!” She said, and the room hushed. Gil was still laughing loudly, which made Jay laugh. Uma elbowed him and he looked up at her.

“Wuh-“ he said, and then he looked and saw Jay and Mal. “Oh! Hey Jay, hey Mal!” He beamed, and Uma groaned.

“Shut up, Gil!” she said, kicking him. He frowned at her, rubbing his arm and nodding. Mal laughed.

“Really great crew, Shrimpy,” she said and Uma grit her teeth.

“What are you doing here? I don’t remember inviting any stuck up Dragon Hall losers,” Uma said.

“I wanted to come, so I did,” Mal said, shrugging. “This is basically _my_ island. You know that, right?”

“You’re in my territory,” Uma said.

“Again, my island,” Mal said, yawning. “I can go wherever I want.” Uma stepped down from the couch, marching through the crowd, which split before her, towards Mal. Harry right behind her, of course, grinning now.

“Your mom may think she owns this place, but that doesn’t have anything to do with you, sweetheart,” Uma said. “This is my territory, my crew, my party. And I say it’s time for you to leave.”

“And yet, I’m not leaving,” Mal said, looking around. “Funny, huh?”

Harry opened his mouth to step in, and Jay was feeling ready for a fight, even as it was just him and Mal in the middle of a crowd of pirates they’d been stealing from for the last hour.

Harriet cut her brother off, though. “Come on, guys,” she said, stepping in between them. “Last I heard I was the oldest pirate in here and it was my party, Uma, and I invited Jay.”

“You did what?” Uma said, irritated.

“Yep,” she shrugged. “So he’s with us,” she said, gesturing at a group of Dragon Hall pirates. “Which means so is she.” She pointed at Mal. Mal just looked irritated, but she didn’t say anything, just frowned. Jay knew she didn’t like other’s defending her, he’d gotten the cold shoulder from her for attempting it in the past.

Uma seemed to weigh her options. Just going against Jay and Mal was an easy bet to make, but offending Harriet’s pirate crew was a bit more risky.

“Well,” Uma said, after a while, putting on a fake smile on. “I guess I was mistaken, you’re just playing pirate for the night, huh?” She looked Mal up and down. “We’ll see how you shake out, then.” Harry cackled beside her.

“Aw, little Mally wants to be one of us, then?” he said.

“Oh, you wish, Hook,” Mal said, rolling her eyes.

“Let’s just party for evil’s sake,” Harriet said, groaning and shoving her brother. He scowled at her and Mal and Jay laughed. Mal gave him a little wave as she and Jay retreated back into the crowd.

“Maybe I was wrong, Harriet might be into you,” Mal said as they refilled their cups.

“Nah, I think she just didn’t want us to beat up her brother,” Jay said.

“Maybe,” Mal said, and she paused for a moment in thought. “If you got involved with a pirate like that for real I think I’d kill you.” Jay laughed.

“If I ever get involved with anyone for real like that, just take me out,” he said dramatically.

The two of them leaned against a wall, drinking their cider in silence for a while. They’d already taken enough and made a scene that left Uma pouting on the couch, so the night seemed to be drawing to a successful close but Jay still felt a sort of energy under his skin. Like they weren’t done, the night still had more in store for them.

“One more,” he said. “A big one.”

Mal gave him a sideways glance. “Go on,” she said, smirking.

“I dare you to get Uma’s sword. She can’t notice, though,” he said. “So no fighting her for it.”

Mal thought on that for a little bit. “I’ll accept it.” A pause, as if she was trying to think of something. “You have to take Harry’s hook.”

“Oh come on, Mal!” Jay laughed, disbelief.

“You think I’m kidding?” Mal said with a smirk. “You’ve got a half hour, buddy, then we meet outside with the loot.”

“Mal, you gave me an impossible one,” Jay said, pouting in a way that made Mal laugh.

“You’re the best their on the isle, aren’t you?” Mal cackled as she disappeared into the crowd. “Figure it out!” Jay shook his head after her. He had no idea how he was supposed to do this, but he needed another cider first.

He decided to lay back and wait to see how Mal was going to separate Harry and Uma, since Harry would be watching her for sure if she suddenly tried to talk to Uma, and vice versa for him. There was no way to pull one over on either of them when they were near each other and Jay rarely saw them apart. After about ten minutes he figured she must be doing the same for him, and he decided to take the chance to show off as a plan came to his mind. 

He made his way through the room, flirting through it effortlessly. Mal had called him a one trick pony plenty of times, but what worked worked. He didn’t see a problem with it. Soon enough he was near Gil, who was laughing with Bonny. Jay didn’t really know much about Gil, except that he lived with his dad, while the Dragon Hall Gastons lived with their mom, and that wasn’t very smart and had been the first member of Uma and Harry’s crew. He smiled slyly at Gil, and Gil smiled at him genuinely. He was so weird and it made Jay feel a little weird; boys didn’t really smile at each other like that on the isle. He thought of Carlos, smiling way back when, but he pushed that from his mind. How was Carlos’s trick working on him when he wasn’t even there? Jay took a deep breath, and began striking up a conversation with Gil.

“Hey, Gil, enjoying the party?” Jay asked. It didn’t matter what he said, what mattered was that Harry saw them talking. And he did, as Gil energetically responded Jay saw Harry whisper something to Uma before standing up and heading in their direction.

“Hey, Harry,” Gil said, looking at his friend when Harry stepped right up behind his shoulder, bumping against him.

“Yeah, hey, Harry,” Jay said, mocking. Harry gave him a threatening grin.

“Would’ve thought you guys had left,” Harry said. “You don’t have a curfew? Your daddy’s not waitin’ up to see what garbage you’ve stolen today?”

“You really want to bring up fathers, Hook?” Jay said with a laugh. “At least I don’t pretend to be mine like you. Nice hook, by the way.” Gil looked between the two of them, clearly confused.

“Yeah, it’s a real nice hook,” Harry said, stepping past Gil now, pushing him behind him. “You wanna see it up close?” He pressed the hook against Jay’s cheek and Jay rolled his eyes.

“You don’t scare me, Harry,” he said, thinking. Mal hadn’t said he couldn’t fight for the hook, but it wasn’t the same as the stealthy stealing of their game all night. So it would definitely be cheating if he just grabbed it from Harry right then. So instead he just pushed it away from his cheek. “You pirates are all talk, you don’t even have a ship.”

“We do have a ship!” Gil said, poking his head from behind Harry. Harry let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s, like, really bad ass.”

“Gil,” Harry said slowly, glaring at Gil. “Why don’t you go sit with Uma?”

Gil pouted. “I was talking to Jay, though,” he whined. 

“And now I am, so you don’t have to,” Harry said with an air of finality. Gil looked disappointed but did as he was told, giving Jay an apologetic ‘bye’ as he left. 

“Huh, so you really do have a ship... I’d heard you sunk it, though,” Jay said, resisting grinning at his plan working.

“Our ship is fine,” Harry said, smiling to himself. “Just not public knowledge yet.”

“I see, where is it then?” Jay asked, grinning. Harry laughed.

“Now why in the world would I tell you that?” Harry said.

And Jay didn’t know what came over him, maybe the weird feeling from Gil’s easy smile, or the memory of Carlos’s, or maybe just the cider. He was just thinking of how to get the hook, he reasoned, and what worked worked, right? Harry was close, in his space, like Carlos in the bathroom when Jay had agreed to leave him alone. Jay stood taller, and recalling how he’d got Harriet’s rings earlier. “I dunno,” he said, lowering his voice. He leaned forward, reaching out and touching Harry on the waist, feather-light but there. It was a bit clumsier than usual, a bit scarier, riskier. “Maybe you were right earlier, maybe I wanna be a pirate.”

And Harry did falter a bit, his cocky grin wavering. He narrowed his eyes at Jay who put on his best look of flirty nonchalance. The one that always had girls giggling and twirling their hair. Harry did neither.

“You wouldn’t be a very good one,” he said, and Jay noted how low his voice was now and his pulse spiked, the game was on. It was the same one he knew, with girls, but it was completely different.

“Worth a try, though, right?” Jay said, cocking his head to the side. Harry gave a nervous look around them, calculating something.

He seemed to make a decision, after a long glance back at Uma. “Let’s go then,” he said, finally. He brushed past Jay, who looked around for Mal, spotting her mingling kind of awkwardly near Uma. They were supposed to meet outside in ten minutes but... Jay turned and followed Hook out of the building, taking a rickety old elevator out. They were silent in there, Jay was sure they could both hear his heart pounding. Out side Harry went quickly and silently, Jay jogging to keep up. The docks weren’t far, but there was no boat there.

“So... you did sink it, then?” Jay asked, looking around. Harry rolled his eyes.

“You think I took you out here to just look at the docks?” he said.

“That’s what it looks like, yes,” Jay said. Harry laughed.

“You Dragon Hall kids are idiots,” he said, walking the piers until he jumped from one. “Never look closer than what you first see.”

“Uh, I don’t know about going for a swim right now,” Jay said, rushing to the edge. Harry hadn’t landed in water, though. Instead on a rocky shore. Jay jumped after him.

“See? Idiots,” Harry cackled, and Jay hit him on the shoulder, which Harry responded to by shoving his hook against Jay’s throat.

“Again with the stupid hook,” Jay said, shoving Harry away.

Harry scowled at him before forcing a grin. “An awful pirate you’re makin’ already, Jay,” he said. “You should show more respect to the first mate.”

Jay laughed. “Aye, aye,” he said with a salute. Harry glared at him but continued to lead him around the bank. Eventually they came around to the sight of a beached shipwreck. Not completely wrecked, though, Jay noted. The ship actually didn’t look too bad, despite not being in the water. Uma and her crew had already put a flag up on it, with their pirate crew’s symbol on it. Jay approached it, touching the worn down wood. “Gil was kind of right,” he said. It was a big ship, repair jobs seemed to be well on their way on it. It was kind of cool.

“Yeah, we found it,” Harry said, close behind Jay. “Harriet’s already staked claim on dad’s ship, but I don’t need it.” He grinned up at the ship. “Won’t need anything from him.”

Harry looked good, Jay realized, looking over his shoulder. Moonlight illuminated his face, and he was smiling in a genuine way. Maybe Jay was just weak for a genuine smile. Harry wasn’t even smiling at him, he wouldn’t, and Jay didn’t even want him to. He just liked... How it looked. Jay heard his father’s words about weakness and exploitation and dangerous games as he turned around to face Harry, leaning on the hull of the ship a bit. He and Harry stared at each other for a beat, something electric in the air. He reached out and grabbed Harry lightly by the back of his neck with one hand, resting his other on Harry’s shoulder.

“Shit,” Harry swore as Jay pulled him in. He came willingly, though, and it wasn’t Jay’s first kiss but it was his first kiss with a boy and that seemed to mean something. It was worlds different. Jay’s heart was racing as Harry dropped the hook, which Jay mildly noted as a success, but then became more occupied with Harry’s tongue in his mouth.

They stood there making out for a long time, Harry’s hands gripping onto Jay’s waist, holding him against the ship. It felt like hours before Harry pulled back with a start. “Fuck, someone’s comin’.”

Jay looked back where they came from, and sure enough Uma was heading over with Gil by her side. She was fuming, and Jay realized with amusement that the sheath on her belt was empty. As Harry shoved him away, hissing at him to get out of there, Jay realized he’d already retrieved his hook from the ground and Jay had lost his chance to pocket it. Damn. Harry continued to shove him away.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Jay hissed.

“Well, on with it! Hurry!” Harry said. Jay rushed away to hide behind a rock formation on the beach, unsure of how to leave besides the way they had come. Uma was bitching about her missing sword, and Gil was trying to console her. Jay peeked out to see Harry looking after him with narrowed eyes, probably putting together exactly what had just happened. He was gripping his hook with both hands. Jay winked at him, though, and that made Harry smile. Not a genuine, real smile, but more like an understanding smirk.

When the group seemed sufficiently entrenched in conversation Jay made a run for it back to the docks.

He didn’t get the hook, but he did get the location of the rival gang’s ship. Hopefully that was enough to impress Mal and make her forgive him for leaving her behind at the party.

-

The next morning he was sitting on the steps of Dragon Hall. It was humid out, the last week before summer break. He was looking over his final paper for his pre-enrichment class. He was thoroughly focused on it when he felt something sharp against his neck. He looked up, surprised. It hurt, he realized he must have a bruise there from. Yeah.

Mal was holding Uma’s sword, the point pressed against the side of his neck. She did not look pleased. “You really left me to go get with Harriet Hook?” She said, a disbelieving laugh. Jay felt his cheeks warm up.

“Um,” he said, considering his options. He could lie, say he was with Harriet and just hope she never heard of the lie. She would come for him immediately, he knew, if he lied about ‘getting with’ her. But to admit who he had really given him the hickey...

“Or not?” Mal said, making the decision for him. She narrowed her eyes at him, and momentarily pressed the tip of the sword harder into his neck before pulling away. “No hook, I see...” She had a calculating look in her eye and Jay knew it was a matter of seconds before she put two and two together. “Last I saw you were talking to Harry, then you were both gone...” A grin grew on her face. She sat down next to him, a self satisfied look on her face.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Jay pleaded, and this was the weakness that went along with falling to others’ tricks. Begging Mal to keep a secret for him.

Mal shrugged. “I won’t—unless I do,” she laughed. “Consider is leverage.”

Jay sighed. “I didn’t get the hook, but I did find out where their ship is.”

“They really have one?” Mal said, surprised.

“Yeah, it’s beached by thedocks, hidden by the rocks, though,” Jay said. “It’s in bad shape but it looked like they had been working on it. Harry was kind of sentimental over it.”

Mal snorted. “You guys talked about your feelings? How romantic.”

“Shut up,” Jay groaned. “It’s not like that—it was just a momentary lapse in judgement. I was trying to get the hook.”

“Whatever you say,” Mal said.

“And I did find their new base,” Jay said, bumping shoulders with Mal.

“And _I_ got Uma’s sword,” she said, waving it around in the air. Jay laughed, feeling better about the whole situation. When he and Mal went into the school he touched his neck, Mal caught him though and laughed at him. He scowled at her.

But she didn’t really bring it up again, and she didn’t tell anyone. Jay expected that one day it would come up again, the leverage. It didn’t, though. Not once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok here’s a more standard length chapter 😇


	3. Three

The next time Jay saw Harry was when he was taking care of the shop while his father was out at their marketplace stall. He was sitting on one of the display tables, reading a water-logged and wrinkled old comic book that he’d already read a handful of times. He looked up when the bells on the door rang and saw him enter the shop, not looking at Jay as he sauntered through.

He smirked. “Hey, Hook,” he said, setting down the book.

Harry kept a nonchalant look on his face, looking at the shops wares. “Oh, Jay,” he said, as if he hadn’t expected Jay to be there, and Jay let out a chuckle.

“Surprised to see me here? At my dad’s shop?” He said, raising a brow at Harry, who turned to look at him. He gave him a disinterested look that read as anything but. Jay smirked.

“I’m not here for you,” Harry said, simply. A lie, Jay noted. “Just here for...” Harry looked around, grabbed a random bangle from a box with his hook and held it up. “This.”

“Sure,” Jay said. “For Uma? She find out your gave away the location of your ship?” Harry glowered at him, properly challenged, stepping towards him quickly, into his space. Jay grinned, blood running electric. He tilted his head slightly. “Scared of disappointing your captain?”

“You’d really be a terrible pirate,” Harry laughed. He wasn’t touching Jay but he was close to him, now, leaning against the table. Face inches from his and Jay recalled the taste of his lips, sea salt and starlight, excited.

“Yeah, probably, I just don’t know how you guys do it. All that shanty-ing and general pirate stupidity,” he said. He reached out first, grabbing Harry’s waist, pulling him closer. “Wanna teach me?”

Harry laughed and Jay grinned, giddy with the whole experience. Having a boy like this.

Jay ended up locking the door to the store, even though that would get him into a lot of trouble. He felt like he was in enough trouble already just being with Harry. In a good way, though. Like he was breaking the rules the way you were expected to break the rules as a villain. He’d flirt with girls all day then kiss boys like Harry Hook all night, and he wouldn’t think of Carlos de Vil at all.

He took Harry back to the kitchen, and when they kissed he didn’t stop him when he ran his hands underneath Jay’s shirt. He always stopped girls if they tried something like that, but he let Harry touch him. He let it go farther than that, even.

It was kind of terrifying, thrilling. It was fun.

-

Jay and Harry saw each other regularly after that, at first playing it off as random. Jay appeared at the ship just _randomly_ , and definitely not after scoping out the place to see when Harry would be there alone. Harry would randomly corner Jay outside of his dad’s shop at night when Jay was closing up, pulling him into the alley beside it.

Jay kind of hoped this would help with the Carlos problem, if he was, like, fooling around with someone else. Instead it just gave more and more context to some of the feelings he had towards Carlos. It wasn’t good for his imagination.

He only saw Carlos once over the summer, out in the marketplace while Jay was watching his father’s stall. Mal was sitting on the stall table waving around a sword from a pile of them they’d looted from the pirates a week earlier.

“I don’t know why you got to take all of these,” she grumbled. “We both stole them.”

“Your mom doesn’t sell swords,” Jay said. “Unless they were like... Cursed or something.”

Mal rolled her eyes, before something distracted her. “Oh, hey, there’s your boyfriend.”

Jay looked up, expecting to see Harry in the marketplace, but instead Mal was looking out at Carlos who was bartering for some moldy looking oranges. Jay punched Mal in the arm for her comment, glaring at her. He had barely interacted with Carlos the year before at school, and he thought the Harry revelation would stomp out Mal’s now years old teasing over Carlos.

“Hey! de Vil!” Mal yelled, waving her sword.

Carlos looked over, startled, but when he saw who was calling him he just rolled his eyes before turning back to shove a few coins at the stall owner he was speaking to and taking the oranges.

“I don’t know why he thinks he can act like that,” Mal said, jumping off Jay’s stall. “I think it’s time to teach him a lesson.”

“Leave him alone, Mal,” Jay said, rolling his eyes. “He’s just a stuck up nerd.”

“Doesn’t give him a pass to disrespect me on my own turf,” Mal said, she was still holding the sword and started off after Carlos. “Hey, pup!” She yelled, which made him jump. She chased him through the marketplace and Jay just shook his head. 

Mal returned later, grumpy. “How is he so fucking fast...” she mumbled, returning the sword. Jay tried not to note all the nice things Mal did, they were confusing and sometimes lead him to think of all the nice things he’d do for her. But he noticed this, she should’ve just taken the sword. She should be off doing evil instead of keeping him company at the stall.

He didn’t see Carlos again that summer, spending all of his time helping out around the shop, stealing things with Mal, or hooking up with Harry. He’d learned that Harry had a real _thing_ for Uma, and when he teased him over it Harry had given him a level look and said “takes one to know one,” and Jay didn’t deny it. Harry probably thought Jay had a thing for Mal, as incomprehensible as that was. He didn’t even know Carlos, so Jay considered the leverage still in his favor.

He didn’t know why it surprised him so much to learn Harry was in his same weird situation. Looking at him and Uma, it made sense, she definitely had something over on him. And he just let her have that power, Jay wondered how it would be if he just let Carlos have him in the same way. Let him into his life like that and be his right hand man instead of Mal’s; what it would be like if he stood by him and just trusted Carlos with his weakness. Carlos was really smart, maybe Jay could use it to his advantage to get a better Weird Science grade. It was a ridiculous idea, imagining him following Carlos around like Harry did with Uma. Doing whatever he asked, protecting him from other kids at school... It made Jay feel hot all over.

He wondered if Uma knew, or if she was as oblivious as Carlos seemed to be. She was clever, and seemed to take full advantage of the power Harry’s feelings gave her over him, so maybe she did know. Harry didn’t seem to mind. Jay didn’t get it.

-

Jay saw Carlos next on the first day of school, it was still hot out and Jay was waiting outside for Mal like he always did. Carlos arrived early, and maybe it was because he’d been doing so much thinking about Harry and Uma’s dynamic that he waved at him and called out a “hey, Carlos!”

Carlos returned his greeting with a weird look on his face, “oh, uh, hey. Jay.” He stopped not too far from Jay.

“I’m sure you’re excited about school being back,” Jay said, with a grin and Carlos let out a sigh.

“Yeah, I am,” he said, plainly, as if he was bored of the conversation already. He had a bruise on his cheek Jay realized. He wanted to ask about it, but he didn’t. “You know we’re both in the same advanced classes,” Carlos mused, kicking the ground. “Wouldn’t that make you as much as a nerd as me?” He looked away, clearly knowing that was a risky thing to say.

Jay just laughed, though. “Yeah, but I’m not proud of it. I’m just good at being bad.”

Carlos chuckled at that, shaking his head.

“Jay!” Came Mal’s voice from the gates of Dragon Hall as students began to pour in. Carlos jumped and looked over his shoulder.

“Uh, see you around,” he said to Jay before running off. Jay frowned at Mal as she approached him.

“Aw, mad I scared off your boyfriend?” she said, laughing. He kicked her shin before standing up, but she just continued laughing. “What happened to you bothering him all the time, anyway?”

“It got boring,” Jay said as they entered the school. “He’s too easy of a target.”

“It was fun watching you chase him around, though,” Mal laughed, stealing a textbook out of a distracted classmate’s bag as they entered the school. Jay snatched a first year’s lunch, opening it and taking out a mushy apple.

“Maybe you’re the one obsessed with him,” Jay said, rolling his eyes.

“Not my type,” Mal said, flipping through the book. “Oh, nice, I actually do need this for Enrichment...”

Jay didn’t really see Carlos again that day, or much in school that week at all, they only had Evil Schemes together on A days and Enrichment on B days and it wasn’t like Jay was searching him out. He saw him before school, though. Jay usually arrived early, generally trying to make a round through the marketplace to snatch what looked good before someone else could sell it, and he didn’t have anywhere else to be, so he waited for Mal to arrive at school. Carlos also arrived early, Jay didn’t know why. But he was always there before the other students arrived. The two didn’t always talk, and when they did it wasn’t really eye opening. Probably not notable to Carlos at all even if Jay clung to the spare moments of Carlos he was granted.

Sometimes, especially if Carlos had got beat on or something the day before, he’d be with a frowning Harry and Jace. “Those your friends?” Jay had whispered to him, one day, snickering.

“Shut up, they’re my,” and Carlos sighed, “minions.”

Jay laughed. “You don’t seem the minion having type,” he said. “It’s cute.” Carlos gave him a very weird look and Jay felt his face warm up. “I mean, it’s like. Cute in a stupid way, like you’re stupid to have minions when you’re,” Jay gestured at Carlos. “Small. Weak, and shit.”

“I’m not weak,” Carlos bit out.

“Calm down, puppy,” Jay said. “You don’t have to bite me.”

Carlos shook his head, irritated. “Looks like some girl has got that taken care of,” he sniffed, eyeing Jay’s neck. Jay’s hand came up to his neck, feeling sure enough there was a bruise there. Harry had shown up outside the Junk Shop the day before, for the first time since the summer, pulling him down the alley and confirming their little arrangement would continue through the fall semester.

Jay didn’t say anything, feeling like Carlos had stolen the air from his lungs. His mind was running a bit wild.

Mal came over and Carlos fled, quickly as usual, as Mal barked after him, laughing.

“You okay, Jay? You look sick,” Mal said, looking at him. “Not that I care just—yeah.” She forced a laugh.

Jay coughed. “I’m fine,” he said, shaking his head.

-

“So are you and Harry, like, I don’t know... Dating?” Mal asked one night. They were sitting outside the Junk Shop, working on a plan for an enrichment project. She had a disgusted look on her face. “I saw you guys leaving here the other day.”

“What—no,” Jay said. “We’re just having fun together and I’m gathering intel on a rival gang. Remember, that's how I figured out when we could get those swords over the summer.”

“But you guys like, have sex?” Mal said.

Jay shrugged. “Is it sex if its two guys?”

“That’s what I don’t get,” Mal said. Jay shrugged again.

“I don’t think it really matters. It’s just like what I do with girls, except I get to have fun, too,” he said, leaning back. “Why are you so curious?”

“It’s just weird,” Mal said. “I just wanted to make sure we didn’t have any loyalty issues here. You’re a part of my gang.”

Jay looked away to hide his smile. “Yeah, Mal, of course. The pirates are all so stupid, I’d never join them—oh!” Jay looked back at Mal. “Harry likes Uma, like in the weak way, he told me so. Figure we could probably exploit that at some point.”

Mal grinned. “I knew it,” she said. “Why’s he fooling around with you, then?”

“Like I said, it’s fun,” Jay grinned. “Maybe when you’re older you’ll understand.”

“Oh, shut up, I’m like six months older than you,” Mal said, laughing and shoving Jay’s shoulder. She seemed to still be thinking about something. “Why don’t you have fun with any of the girls?”

“I don’t want to,” Jay said, shrugging. “And makes me better at what I do, doesn’t it? I can flirt through girls all day long and take all their crap with no feelings or shit.”

“You’re so weird, just steal things normally,” Mal laughed.

“It’s so much more fun when I get to make girls cry, too, though,” Jay grinned.

“You’re such a scumbag,” Mal said.

“You’re too kind, Mal,” Jay said, smug, and she shoved his shoulder again and he kicked her shin.

-

A couple weeks into classes, Mal was skipping and at lunch... Jay didn’t know what came over him. He sat with Carlos. A bunch of other boys ended up following him, and Carlos ignored him. Anthony Tremaine asked if Jay and Mal were dating, it wasn’t the first time he’d been asked that. His own father asked him often enough. Jay had grown to realize that everyone was just going to think that, and he could use it to his advantage if he wanted to but. He didn’t.

Carlos snapped at Anthony and Jay felt as impressed and attracted to the boy as ever. He thought again of Harry and Uma’s relationship as he backed Carlos up.

A few days later the Gastons tripped Carlos in an empty hallway. Jay helped him up and as Carlos looked at him, annoyed, Jay felt overcome by a want for something. He didn’t have the words for it, but maybe it was because he’d seen something on TV, during one the Prince of the Week segments. The way they all smiled, the way it embarrassingly made his heart race and want. Right then he kind of wanted to make Carlos feel like that, so he smiled at him. Carlos gave him that weird look that he did, brows furrowed in confusion and lips pursed like he was focusing on a really hard question on an Evil World History exam. Jay wasn’t sure how to read it. He pat him on the shoulder before leaving. There were no ‘thank you’s or ‘you’re welcome’s on the isle so they said nothing. Jay hadn’t really protected him anyway, he’d still been tripped.

He felt sick with how he wanted to, though.

He dreamed about it, and they felt dirtier than the other dreams he had about Carlos. He dreamed about beating up the bullies who hurt Carlos, while Carlos watched, safe and pristine. He dreamed about being the one to walk him to school protectively, with Carlos’s hand in his so everyone knew that if you messed with him, you were messing with Jay. He dreamed about holding Carlos close just to know he was okay and safe in Jay’s grasp. One day, in the far future, Mal would tell him this was “basically a fetish”, like all the Auradon kids who would one day be attracted to the danger of their badness, Jay was attracted to the danger of this goodness. The taboo of wanting to take care of someone and protect them even if that someone was his own greatest weakness.

Weeks later Jay actually did protect him. During dodgeball he caught every ball thrown at him. Carlos was good at dodging, but Jay did this anyway. Harriet almost got Carlos with one aimed right at his face, and Jay caught it with a smile at Carlos. Carlos looked at him wide eyed before they narrowed, confused. Jay grinned wider, throwing the ball back at Harriet and getting her in the gut. He almost felt like he could kiss Carlos, which was terrifying and thrilling.

He didn’t of course, but he felt like he could.

-

“The princess in the castle-across-the-way is coming to school,” Carlos said one morning. Jay raised an eyebrow at him.

“How do you know this?” he said.

“I saw her,” Carlos shrugged. “I was washing my mom’s car and she gave a letter to the mailman. He doesn’t go down to the castle, so she met him outside Hell Hall.”

“And she said she was going to school?” Jay asked.

“Yep,” Carlos said. “Probably soon.”

“Was she hot?” Jay asked, which was so stupid. It just felt like the sort of thing he ought to ask. So he did.

“I don’t know?” Carlos said. “She has blue hair?”

Jay laughed, he wondered if Carlos wasn’t interested in girls either. If he was interested in boys.

The next day Jay walked to school with Mal, which he did sometimes, and he told her about the princess. He felt bad for her, at her tense response, remembering the birthday party she hadn’t been invited to. He felt bad for himself for feeling bad for her.

And then Evie and Carlos were fast... Friends. They didn’t even seem shy about it. Loudly talking in happy voices, not taunting anyone or making rude comments, just sharing joy in their shared interests. Jay felt sick seeing it. And jealous, because of course Evie _was_ hot and Carlos would see it soon enough. If they were so shameless about friendship, Jay didn’t want to think about how they’d be if they started flirting in class.

Mal decided on having a party, which sounded fine to Jay. She uninvited then re-invited Evie and Jay stopped trying to keep up with whatever manic plan Mal was creating.

-

He got to the party with Mal’s requested snacks early. He’d never been to Hell Hall. Mal had, back in the sixth grade when she’d done that skit with Carlos. It was just weeks after he’d got Jay with his un-intentional trick. Jay had obsessively asked Mal what it was like.

The old mansion was large and threatening. Jay felt a shiver down his spine as he pushed through the wrought iron fence. He let himself in, seeing Carlos standing in the main room with his hands on his hips, smiling at the party set up.

“Not too shabby,” he said.

“And it’s about to get a whole lot better,” Jay said over the bags of groceries. He’d managed a really good haul at the wharf, but would definitely be hearing it from his father once he’d realized that Jay had grabbed a bunch of store stock to barter with.

Carlos looked at him with wide eyes, obviously impressed as well. Jay began setting up the food, but Carlos went to stop him as he began to pour the cider into a cracked punch bowl.

“Wait—stop! I don’t want things to get out of hand,” he said, trying to grab the bottle away. Jay pulled it back, frowning. “How did you get your hands on all of that?”

“I have my ways,” Jay said, laughing, shouldering Carlos out of the way. “And that’s where you’re wrong, better things get out of hand than we leave Mal displeased. It’s not a party without cider, pup.”

Carlos frowned, looking anxious. Jay took a seat on the couch as Carlos sighed in resignation, looking over his shoulder at his minions, who just shrugged, still figuring out some sort of camera setup in the corner. Jay didn’t pay them much mind.

“So my house is gonna be trashed by the morning, huh?” Carlos said, sinking down beside Jay on the couch. Jay nodded, reaching out to grab some limp looking grapes.

“Hope your mom won't mind,” he teased, popping one in his mouth. Carlos glared at him.

“I’m just trying to think of the immediate threat, right now,” he said. “Which is Mal.” He paused. “You know, you’re basically her minion.”

Jay couldn’t help but grin at that, he found it ridiculously endearing how Carlos would get mouthy with him when Mal wasn’t around. Like he wasn’t scared of him. A part of him knew it was Carlos testing his limits; after years he had probably realized Jay actually had stayed away from him when he’d told him to and he must have noticed that meant something. More immediately, though, it was just kind of badass. Hot, even.

“I’m no one’s minion, we’re partners,” Jay said. And maybe he felt like testing limits as well because he reached up and put an arm on the back of the couch behind Carlos, almost touching but not quite. Carlos gave him that weird look of his. “I’m just having fun.”

Midnight came quickly, guests started arriving.

Jay danced with lots of girls, Carlos hid under a sheet. Mal pretended to have a good time, and Jay laughed as Anthony Tremaine tried to dance with her. 

Then Carlos disappeared with Evie after Mal’s prank. Mal was fuming, angry with her failed plan. Jay saw Carlos and Evie laughing as they sneaked drinks from the table, before retreating to somewhere else. Alone. Mal left shortly after. Jay threw himself into the party, they made a mosh pit in the ballroom and crowd-surfed, and it was fun. He drank a lot, and it was fun.

He only looked around for Carlos hopefully, like, four times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dialogue when jay first enters hell hall is mostly lifted from isle of the lost by melissa de la cruz, but tweaked a bit bc it’s actually kind of weirdly written in the source djdbdjd


	4. Four

Things went quickly after that, the weekend going by in a blur of schemes and plots and the quest for Maleficent’s scepter. The surprise quality time with Carlos that left Jay more confused than ever. He’d never forget the look on his face when he’d had to admit his mother didn’t love him. If Jay had been obsessed with the idea of protecting him before, it was nothing compared to after seeing. 

It was interesting getting to know Evie, suddenly and intensely. She was kind of cool, but he knew Mal was planning to hurt her. He was planning to hurt Mal, too, though. That thought made him feel sick but he just tried to focus on the important things like how proud his dad would be, once Jay pulled off his evil plan. Carlos was just there, it seemed, and Jay wondered if he would hurt any of them. They weren’t going to hurt him, he must have realized that quickly. They’d helped him with his chores, when they could’ve just taken the box, and made Evie figure out how to use it. But they’d helped him with his chores, Mal giving Jay looks about it. The whole thing was a jumbled up whirl in Jay’s mind that left him feeling dizzy.

The Cave of Wonders from his father’s retellings, suffocating him and the others with sand while he barely noticed. Jay had been distracted by the shining gold and diamonds, and it had almost killed them all.

Mal stepped up to protect Carlos at the end of the night.

“Are you crazy?!” Jay had yelled at her, as Carlos cowered behind him. She was, he noted, absolutely insane. Carlos gripped onto the back of his shirt.

“Mal, seriously, you don’t have to do this,” he said.

Jay looked behind himself and saw Evie’s eyes lit up in awe and Carlos’s wide with fear. He looked at Mal and saw her, his best friend. Determined and proud.

“Definitely crazy,” Evie had said, but she said it like it was a huge compliment. Like the best thing about Mal, and Jay thought he agreed.

They crossed the bridge and all Jay could do was laugh. It was absurd. As his friends collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. He really didn’t know anything about friendship, but he knew _this_ was it. It felt powerful, he helped Evie up as the goblins greeted them. He grinned as Mal slept on Evie’s shoulder on the ride back. He put an arm around Carlos, feeling fucking brave.

When his father berated him over not getting the scepter, he suddenly didn’t care. He didn’t feel weak right then, too hyped up on everything that had happened. He’d probably come falling back down, but right then. He was fine. He was glad he hadn’t betrayed Mal, he was glad she’d protected Evie from the sleeping curse and Carlos from the bridge. There wasn’t a single thing he regretted about the night.

The next morning he ran to Hell Hall, Evie and Carlos were already outside of it, talking and laughing and being friends. Jay joined them, throwing an arm over Carlos’s shoulder ruffling his hair, and Carlos laughed. Like they were in sixth grade gym again, chasing each other and letting themselves be caught. Evie beamed at them.

“Let’s go get Mal,” she said.

And they did.

-

Being friends with Carlos was something so incomprehensible, Jay didn’t know what to do with it. Having so much of him in a way he never even really allowed himself to wish for he found himself falling in love with whole new things about Carlos. Like the way he’d impulsively say whatever was on his mind, whether it was nice or mean. The way he could go on and on about a topic of his interest without stopping to pause for breath. The way he wanted more from life than just what the isle had to offer, a confession he’d told to Jay and Evie on the steps of Dragon Hall one morning. 

Carlos and Evie walked to school together, now, so the three of them sat together on the steps of Dragon Hall before anyone else got there. Mal would never be an early riser, so she always arrived late. They always waited for her, though, before entering the school. 

They didn’t call each other friends out loud, of course, but they all knew. They probably could’ve, though. While the rumors of their good deeds at the Forgotten Fortress had spread, Mal was still too powerful to be messed with.There were whispers and maybe a few foolish taunts thrown their way, but a quick green-tinted glare and well placed insult from Evie or Carlos, with Jay backing them up threateningly, cut them off. The four of them were working together to try and make a new Evil Scheme for their year long project. They took over an old storage place as their base.

“No one else can come in here,” Mal said, as she spray painted the walls with graffiti and Evie dumped a bunch of pillows on the floor. She gave Jay a pointed look, “that means no bringing friends here, Jay.”

“Ooh,” Evie said, sitting down on the pile of pillows daintily and clapping her hands. “Do you have a girlfriend, Jay?”

Carlos flopped down next to her, and Jay avoided looking at him.

“Absolutely, not,” Jay said.

“He just has ‘fun’,” Mal snickered, working on her art piece. Jay stuck out his tongue at her. Carlos seemed thoroughly distracted with the book he had brought, but Evie was looking at him curiously. She turned to comment on Mal’s art soon enough, though. Jay sat down on the pillows, close beside Carlos, reaching out to mess with his book so he’d push him away and Jay would laugh and he’d smile.

In the last four years Jay had gone from falling for Carlos’s trick, to bullying him, to leaving him alone, to this. Friendship. Jay didn’t even know what to expect for the future of their relationship. He wanted more, he knew this, but he understood why Harry didn’t go for anything with Uma. There wasn’t room for that on the Isle, for love and romance. Even if Jay and Mal could find the benefit of having and being friends, Jay couldn’t see how opening up to Carlos and telling him his real feelings could end well.

So he didn’t even consider it.

-

Harry showed up at Jafar’s Junk Shop late one night. He managed to pick the countless locks Jay’s dad kept on the doors, which left Jay feeling oddly impressed. Jay hadn’t been sleeping, he was just lying under the shelves on the area of the floor he called his bed, staring up at the bottom of the shelf above him restlessly, when Harry slipped through the door.

“I’ll have to tell my dad to get some better locks,” Jay whispered, rolling out from underneath the shelves and sitting up on the floor. Harry jumped.

“You sleep out here?” he said.

“Yeah, the back room’s my dad’s,” Jay said, standing. Harry gave him an odd look and Jay rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me your dad let’s you sleep in the captain’s quarters on his ship.” Harry laughed.

“At least me and my sisters have our own hammocks down in the lower decks,” Harry shrugged. “That,” he pointed to where Jay had been lying. “Is pretty pathetic.”

“Better off than the kids who’s parents won’t even house them,” Jay shrugged. “What’re you doing here? My dad is gonna kill you if he wakes up and sees you here.”

“Don’t worry about that, we’re leaving,” Harry said. “I wanna show you something.”

Jay left with him, pulling on a jacket since the nighttime weather has begun to get a bit chilly as September dragged on. He followed Harry through the streets and into pirate territory. As they approached the docks he saw Harry was grinning excitedly in a way that made Jay want to smile as well. And then he saw it, floating proudly in the water. Their ship, neatly docked.

“Woah,” Jay said, nodding in approval. “You guys really did it, huh.” The ship still looked messy and tattered and Jay kind doubted it would last long out on the real waters, with only so much available to them on the isle for the repairs, but it honestly looked like a bad ass ghost ship. Jay was impressed.

“Sure did; and she’s all ours,” Harry looked so happy, so genuinely happy. So Jay leaned over and kissed him, because he could. 

“What are you guys gonna do with it, now?” Jay asked, when he pulled away.

“We’ve got plans,” Harry said, cryptic. Jay looked back at the ship and saw Uma and Gil walking around the deck, along with a few other pirates inspecting the hull from the docks.

“You got your own place on there, now?” Jay asked, giving Harry a suggestive look.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, pretty boy,” Harry said, grinning.

“You’ll show me soon enough, I’m sure,” Jay said, cocky. He paused. “Wait, why are you showing me this now?”

“The ships public now, I thought you’d want to see it first,” Harry shrugged.

Jay looked back at the ship. He was glad Harry wanted to show him, it was kind of nice. Jay wondered for a moment if maybe he and Harry were dating, if this was what boys who were dating did. “Thanks,” he said. “You were right. It’s cool.”

Harry beamed again, so Jay kissed him again as well. A smal, chaste kiss. Harry laughed. “That was a bit soft, eh? Don’t go catching feelings on me, Jay.”

Jay glared at him, but with no real fire, and looked back to the ship. “Hey, does Uma know about us?” Jay asked. “I mean—that we hang out. Like this.”

“Of course,” Harry said with a shrug. “Don’t think I don’t know that Mal must know, too.” Jay nodded.

“Must be awkward, though, with how you feel about her...” Jay said. Harry just glared at him.

“You’re really going soft on me, now, Jay,” he huffed.

“Yeah. Well. I have _friends_ now, so.” Harry laughed at him.

“Why are you Dragon Hall kids so scared of having friends? Your crew is your strength,” he said. “Although if my crew was a manic fairy, a princess, and a puppy maybe I wouldn’t be feeling so hot either.” Jay glared at him.

“I’m tired of talking,” he said, a bit annoyed, reaching out and grabbing Harry by the belt loops. “Let’s go somewhere.” He pulled Harry close to him. Harry has a look of consideration on his face before kissing him.

“Maybe you’ll get to see where I’m bunkin’ sooner that I thought,” he breathed and Jay grinned.

“Good, I need some new leverage over you now,” Jay said, and Harry laughed, pulling him out of the darkness and towards the ship. Jay felt a bit of embarrassment as the pirates only looked a little surprised at seeing Jay with Harry. Maybe it was more than just Mal who knew. Harry ignored them, and Jay figured it was Harry giving up his weakness for Jay, so nothing for him to be concerned about.

Uma caught Jay’s eye as Harry pulled up onto the main deck. She glared at him and Jay gave her a cocky little wave. She rolled her eyes, glaring at Harry now, expression demanding an explanation.

“You told me to make sure Mal got the news!” Harry said.

“I meant tell him, not bring him here and-“

“Jay!” Gil said, suddenly. “What are you doing here?” He looked confused but a little happy to see Jay.

“Just checkin’ the place out!” Jay said, laughing at the ridiculousness of this all.

“Enough conversation!” Harry said, exasperated, tugging Jay away from the other two pirates. He took Jay to his cabin, it was small, adjacent to the larger Captain’s cabin, with a little window and a pallet for a bed; it had a thick woven blanket over it and pillows, though. It was nicer than anything else they’d had together. Jay felt like he was living another life, laying back against the softness of the not-quite-bed with Harry on top of him, kissing him, touching him. It felt like luxury.

Afterwards he sat on the bed, running his hands over the blanket. Harry lay on his back, just breathing. Jay checked if he had fallen asleep and saw him staring up at Jay, mild curiosity.

“You really wouldn’t consider becoming a pirate?” Harry asked, quiet. “You’d be good at it.”

Jay felt his face heat up. “I don’t think so,” he said. Harry let out a long breath.

“Yeah,” he said. “You’re probably right.”

Jay pulled his shirt back on.

“Wait,” Harry touched his shoulder before he could get up. “Stay, everyone will be asleep or gone in the next hour. Won’t be so much drama to leave then.”

Jay nodded, and he lied down next to Harry. They just lay there together, quiet. They didn’t cuddle or anything crazy like that. They just lay there.

-

A few weeks later, the news of the Prince’s decree came to them courtesy of Maleficent. Jay felt dizzy with how much was happening around him. He didn’t want to go to Auradon, he knew other villain kids did but he’d never really had a desire to go there. He knew where he belonged, and that was there on the isle. Evie was practically vibrating with excitement, though, while Carlos was shaking with fear. After they’d left their parents they convened in their base.

“Okay,” Mal said, pacing. “So we’re doing this.”

Jay groaned. “I thought you’d have a plan to keep us here,” he said.

“Guys, this could be a good thing,” Evie said. “Auradon is supposed to be really nice, isn’t it?”

“Exactly, and we,” Mal pointed at the group. “Are not. Which is why we won’t be there long. We will just do what my mom’s asked and then we’ll be back home.”

Jay frowned, running a hand through his hair. “In and out,” he said.

Evie frowned but she nodded. Carlos looked just terrified.

They were leaving shortly, it was all so sudden. They’d ditched their parents as long as they could but they all had to return to their homes to get their things.

Jay was in front of his father’s store when he heard someone call out to him. “Jay!”

Harry was jogging down the street towards him, face red. He stopped in front of Jay, heaving a few breaths.

“Uh, hey, Harry?” Jay said. They actually hadn’t seen each other in a bit. It seemed like the Pirates were up to something that was keeping him busy.

Harry coughed as he stood up straight. “Heard you were goin’ off to be Auradon’s new golden boy,” he said. He looked upset.

“I wouldn’t say that...” Jay said, frowning at him. “But, uh, yeah. They’re taking us there. It sucks.”

“Sucks?” Harry said, laughing breathless and confused. “Dragon Hall kids... Idiots.”

“Um, maybe you want to go to tea parties with princesses all day but I don’t,” Jay snorted.

“What did I say,” Harry said, shaking his head. “You guys only look at surface level shit.”

“You go, then,” Jay said, feeling annoyed now. 

Harry laughed. “Just came to see you off,” Harry said. “Uma is pissed, real pissed.”

“So you’re here for intel to pacify her?” Jay said, becoming more aware of how time was ticking. He had to hurry to get his stuff. “We’ll be back soon enough, I’m not staying over there for long.”

Harry shook his head, looking especially irritated now. Jay turned to leave, stepping up to the shop.

“Hey!” Harry said. “Not gonna take the chance to have some fairy-tale romance with your little puppy?”

Jay turned around, quickly.

“Heard they have all sorts of romantic date spots over there...” Harry was glaring at him, looking oddly hurt. Jay felt his cheeks grow hot and his stomach sink. “Surprised I know? You go to school with my sisters, I know what goes on. You didn’t think I really thought you liked Mal, did you? I told you, ‘takes one to know one.”

“What’s your angle, Hook?” Jay said, stomping up to him. He felt embarrassed and frustrated and angry. “Nothing’s gonna change, we’ll be back in a few days, okay? Uma won’t look at you like that and Carlos won’t look at me, and we’ll keep sleeping together like it doesn’t bother us. Mal’s mom has got a stupid plan, we’ll probably fail at it just like we did before and be sent back here. Nothing’s gonna change.”

Harry laughed, his usual demeanor returning. “Everything’s gonna change, Jay.” He reached forward and grabbed Jay by the waist, pulling him in for a kiss. Jay didn’t resist, grabbing onto the front of his shirt and kissing him back because maybe Harry was right and this was the last time he could kiss him. He really had to go, though. He pushed Harry away. Harry chuckled and wiped his mouth with his hand, stepping away. “Everything’s gonna change forever.”

Jay turned and ran into the shop. He didn’t have many belongings so he quickly shoved the few shirts and pants he had into a bag, heart racing. What the hell had Harry been going on about, anyway? Were the pirates really planning something big? Something bigger than what Maleficent was brewing with the kids? Jay shouldered his bag before heading out towards the broken bridge. His father was waiting for him outside, murmuring reminders for how to be bad, cruel, and selfish. Don’t get distracted, take whatever you can, don’t trust anyone…

Jay felt a pang in his chest as he realized he was going to miss his dad.

He stole the ornament from the limo. He put his arm around Carlos for the entire car ride. Carlos was shaking. Jay felt more unsettled than he had before in his entire life.

-

Auradon was so sunny. Jay hated that about it. There were sweets everywhere, though, so at least there was that. Evie looked so excited, constantly, and while Mal was pretending not to see it, Jay actually felt good about that. At least one of them wasn’t having the worst time

When Jay and Carlos got to their room they both stood in the doorway in awe.

“There’s no way this is all for us,” Carlos said. Jay stepped into the room. It was suffocatingly preppy with the plaid and sports memorabilia all about the place, but it was cozy and dimly lit. It wasn’t terrible.

“Who else would it be for,” Jay snorted even though he was in shock as well.

“They’re just giving us these beds?” Carlos said, still in disbelief as he walked up to one of the beds. He looked at Jay in shock and confusion.

“I’ve never had a bed,” Jay confessed.

“Me neither,” Carlos said, sitting down on one. The garbage bag full of his stuff he’d brought sat on the foot of it. “It’s fucking soft.”

Jay laughed, going over to his bed. He had a lot of loot to unpack from his person, keeping up with his father’s reminders, but he just wanted to touch the soft blankets now.

“Woah,” he heard Carlos say. He looked over his shoulder and saw he was looking at the electronics by the TV. “Video games...” he breathed. Carlos loaded something up while Jay went to work unpacking his loot. The girls arrived shortly after. Mal was itching to leave already, and while Jay wanted to leave before they had to worry about going to their weird new classes or talking to any more Auradon kids, the soft beds were making him think that maybe spending the night wouldn’t be awful. He could go back to sleeping on the floor after, but he was curious.

They went to get the wand, though.

The figure of his father left him in awe. He felt a rush of sadness at truly seeing how high up his father had fallen from. How impressive he’d once been. He felt sudden assurance that they were doing the right thing, though, if getting the wand would help bring that man in the figure back. Gone would be the worn down and bitter man he called his father if they could just do this.

He looked around and saw his friends weren’t feeling the same. Carlos and Evie stared at their mothers’ figures in fear. Evie looked confused and sad, Carlos looked like he was going to faint. Mal... Jay couldn’t see her face, but he already knew how her mother made her feel.

“Well... The wands not here, so.” Jay clapped his hands, ushering everyone away. Mal didn’t follow and Evie had to go back for her once they’d found the wand.

It was a long day, and that’s the only excuse Jay had for why he didn’t listen when Mal had told him to wait. Maybe he just wanted to get into that bed and sleep, and whether he managed to grab the wand or not, that would be the outcome regardless. So. Yeah. He was tired.

-

Remedial Goodness was the only class Carlos had with all of them, and then Basic Chivalry with Jay because it was required for all boys to take. They’d pushed him back to the tenth grade. He was upset when he’d realized this.

“I can’t believe this,” he said, looking at his schedule. “This is practically freshman crap! Okay, literally _freshman _english? I spent my whole life fighting for every book that turned up at the wharf to have these people say I should be in freshman english?”__

__He was pacing around their room angrily._ _

__“I should talk to Fairy Godmother, shouldn’t I?” He looked at Jay._ _

__“I don’t think we’re going to be here long enough for it to matter,” Jay said, counting the cash he’d nicked that day._ _

__“It’s the principle of it,” Carlos sniffed and Jay couldn’t help but smile._ _

__“Then bring it up to her,” he said. “I could use someone to cheat off of in pre-calc. They gave me and Mal these little booklets to catch up, Doug made them himself apparently.” Jay laughed. “But I can’t understand any of it.”_ _

__“Lemme see it,” Carlos said, walking over to Jay’s bed and sitting on the edge of it. Jay pulled the little printed booklet out of his backpack. Carlos flipped through it nodding. “I can help you,” he said. “I mean, if we end up stuck here for a while more. Mal’s gonna try and talk to Jane today, but. We’ll see how that goes.”_ _

__“Yeah,” Jay sighed._ _

__They had their recommended tourney tryout that afternoon. Jay was obsessed. It was like dodgeball and chasing-and-running-away practice but with a purpose. Jay bowled over his enemies and perhaps a few of his teammates. Whatever it took to get the goal, right? And he did get the goal, and the coach seemed impressed if not a bit bewildered._ _

__In the locker room Ben came up to Jay. Jay hadn’t really talked to him, these Auradon boys were far too shiny and gold for him. Hard to look at. Constantly smiling and genuine, shiny hair and white teeth._ _

__“That was crazy out there,” he said. “You guys are gonna be great on the team.”_ _

__Jay couldn’t help but grin at the praise, a bit shy. “Yeah, it wasn’t that bad out there.” Ben grinned at him and Jay felt blinded by it._ _

__“You play any sports back on the isle?”_ _

__“We didn’t really have sports at school...” Jay said, thinking. “But there was plenty of sword fighting, lots of pirate kids over there. Me and Mal,” Jay laughed. “We could take on, like, dozens, just the two of us.”_ _

__“Don’t forget dodgeball in gym,” Carlos said, coming to stand next to Jay, knocking his shoulder. He gave him a long look, and Jay wondered if he was remembering the time Jay had got him in the face with the ball, or the time he’d stopped Harriet from doing the same. Probably both._ _

__“And chasing-and-running-away practice,” Jay said._ _

__Ben looked at the both of them, a smile on his face like he thought they were fitting in just perfectly._ _

__“We have sword fighting here, with a rulebook, though. R.O.A.R., once we’re out of tourney season, you guys should sign up for that, too,” Ben said._ _

__“I’m already awful at this,” Carlos said, frowning._ _

__“I already said I’d work with you,” Ben said, laughing. “When I’m done with you, you’ll be giving Jay a run for his money.” He reached out and and touched Carlos’s arm and Jay instinctively grabbed the prince’s wrist. Ben froze and looked at Jay with a confused expression. Carlos looked at him as well, with his weird Carlos expression._ _

__Shit. Jay let go of Ben’s wrist. “Sorry, uh.” He didn’t have an explanation for his actions. He just backed away, grabbing his bag from the locker. “I gotta go.” He jogged away quickly, face burning hot. Why did he do that? Did he think Ben was flirting with Carlos? That was ridiculous. Ben had a girlfriend, he was just being all weird and touchy and nice like these golden Auradon boys were. He guessed._ _

__Carlos seemed to fit in fine with them, Jay could already see him becoming more golden as the days went by. He had a dog with him when he’d come back to the room after practicing with Ben. He smiled at the animal and Jay felt terrified with how much he wanted to keep Carlos shining like that._ _

__Jay got on the team. The coach mentioned family, and while Jay’s mind had gone to his father first, when he stood in the girls’ room plotting he understood it. This was family, and they were a team. He thought of Harry and his crew and how they’d fixed their ship, turned a beached wreck into a real, actual pirate ship._ _

__Maybe they could do this._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the “are you crazy” dialogue is lifted directly from isle of the lost by melissa de la cruz
> 
> i hope the pacing over the canon segments isn’t too choppy! i like it but i hope it is reading well enough for y’all.


	5. Five

Then there were love potions with human tears of sadness, an afternoon of studying pre-calc with Carlos, a moment of weakness from Jay that Mal thankfully stomped out, and a tourney game where Jay was titled MVP and Mal got a boyfriend.

There was a party after the game. In a large common room on the boys’ side of the dorms. Jay had missed parties, and while this was nothing compared to Mal’s Hell Hall Hellraiser, there was still loud music, annoying and poppy as it was, and loud teenagers with open pockets. And these wallets actually had money in them.

“You should give those back,” Evie said, walking up to Jay and leaning against the wall next to him. She pulled a random wallet from one of his pockets. “Won’t do us any good to have you sent back to the isle.”

“What else do you do at parties?” Jay said. “They’ve only got like. Regular soda here, and the music is crap.”

“I like the music,” Evie pouted and Jay laughed.

“Of course you do, you’re practically an Auradon girl, Eves,” he said, teasing. Evie rolled her eyes.

“You know I can be just as bad as the rest of you,” she said. “But it’s nice here and you know it, I saw you during the game. You’re beginning to like it here.”

Jay shrugged, unable to deny it. “What good does that do me, though?”

“I don’t know,” Evie said truthfully. “But we should enjoy this while we can, and we won’t be able to succeed at taking the wand without you, so if you got sent back then we’d all just be screwed. So. Stop stealing.”

Jay nodded. He laughed, suddenly, seeing Mal across the room sitting awkwardly with Ben. He had his arm around her and her face was beet red, eyes avoiding him. Evie followed his gaze and laughed along with him.

“Why, again, did we let her be the one to seduce him? Even with the love potion, this is not convincing,” Jay said.

“You think you would’ve been a better choice?” Evie smirked.

“Absolutely, I think even Auradon would be quicker to accept two boys together than whatever sad attempt at bedroom eyes Mal is giving Ben right now,” Jay laughed, and Evie giggled into her drink.

“Hey, guys!” came a perky greeting. Lonnie Li approached them, smiling wide. 

“Hey, Lonnie!” Evie said, and Jay greeted her with a nod.

“Absolutely killer play, Jay,” she said. “I think this tourney season’s gonna really change everything for the team with you on it.”

Jay smiled at her. “Thanks,” he said. “Tourney is actually pretty cool.”

Lonnie beamed. “With you our there, definitely,” she laughed. “Honestly, so many people were worried about you guys coming to the school, but I personally think we’re better off with you here. It’s more fun this way.”

Jay laughed, a bit unsettled by the comment. Lonnie seemed kind of cool herself, though, so maybe she was being genuine. “Speaking of fun,” he said. “Do we really only have plain soda at this party?”

“Duh, we’re on campus,” she shoved his shoulder playfully and Evie giggled beside him in a way that made Jay’s face warm up. “No one would be crazy enough to try and sneak alcohol past Fairy Godmother,” Lonnie said, incredulous. “Wait until the summer, though, Chad has this insane party at his Dad’s beach house out in Seaside. There was plenty of alcohol there last year.”

Evie looked surprised at that. “I didn’t expect you guys to do stuff like that,” she said.

“Come on, we’re no villains but we’re not all good all the time,” Lonnie said, rolling her eyes. “I should know.” She laughed under her breath to herself. “We’re still teenagers, guys, and some of us know how to have fun.”

Evie nodded.

“Are you guys staying over the summer, too, do you think?” Lonnie said, she sounded like she actually did want them to.

“Um, we don’t know,” Jay said. The whole situation was really vague, the way a proclamation made by a not-quite-16 year old prince might be, and since the four VKs had already decided they weren’t staying through the school year, none of them had asked about what was planned for them after that.

Lonnie looked over at Ben and Mal. “Well, I think Ben will probably try anything he can to keep you guys here, now,” she snorted. Ben was taking another shot at kissing Mal, and she shoved him away. “Mal seems to be having fun playing hard to get, though.”

Mal caught their eye and stood up quickly. She turned to Ben and said something to him and he nodded, getting up after her. They made their way across the room to Evie, Jay, and Lonnie.

“Hey, guys,” she said, strained. Ben was just grinning at her, in a trance, the love spell still strong. “Where’s Carlos?”

Jay pointed over to a secluded corner of the common area where Carlos was half hidden on the ground beside a couch, a book open in his lap. Lonnie looked confused, giving Jay a questioning look. “Carlos always hides at parties,” Jay shrugged. “He’s trying to study because he wants to test out of Sophomore year.” Jay rolled his eyes.

“Why does he want to do that?” Ben asked, tearing his gaze away from Mal. He looked a bit dazed now that he wasn’t looking at her, like he was waking up from a dream.

“He was top of our 11th grade class back on the isle,” Evie explained. “Now he’s in freshman english here.”

“Woah, that's crazy, he was a junior?” Lonnie looked over at Carlos. “Is he some kind of genius?”

“Basically,” Mal said, rolling her eyes. “We were all AP students, though.”

“Really?” Lonnie said, sounding shocked before an embarrassed look washed over her face, “I mean—not that you don’t all seem smart,” she laughed awkwardly.

“It’s fine,” Jay said. “AP stood for something different over there, anyway. The classes here are really different, and really hard. Carlos is just a nerd.”

Ben was still looking at Carlos, though. “I’ll talk to Fairy Godmother for him,” he said.

“Awesome,” Mal said, rolling her eyes. “We don’t even know if we’ll come back for senior year, though.” She glared at Jay.

“You can,” Ben looked back at her quickly. “You guys can stay forever.” He got that dreamy look on his face again and Mal gave him a forced smile.

“I wouldn’t be able to say no to that offer,” Evie said dreamily, under her breath to Jay. Jay found himself nodding in agreement. Maybe that was why Mal had to be the one to date Ben.

“So what do you guys do at parties on the isle?” Lonnie said. “Besides, drink more alcohol.”

“Oh, regular stuff,” Jay said. “Loud music, dancing, party games.”

“What party games?” Ben asked, looking away from Mal again.

“Anything than can end in someone getting seriously maimed is popular,” Jay said, nodding to himself. Evie laughed, shaking her head.

“Remember at Mal’s hellraiser, the pin the tail on the minion thing? That was so horrible,” she said.

“It was funny,” Jay said, laughing. “Don’t forget your seven minutes in hell,” he teased.

“I will never forget that,” Evie said, glaring at Mal now. Mal grinned.

“You came out of that perfectly fine, shut up,” she said, before sighing in mock disappointment. “I still don’t know how you avoided getting caught in not even a single bear trap, though…”

Lonnie and Ben just watched the exchange, a bit perplexed but amused.

“Truth or dare was always legendary, too,” Jay said. “I remember when the Gastons had their fifteenth birthday we played and someone dared Claudine Frollo to let Clay Clayton shoot an apple off her head with his dad’s old gun. That was insane.”

“Oh my god,” Lonnie said, looking a bit horrified.

“She was fine,” Jay said. “Clay’s aim was terrible, he got LeFou Deux in the arm, though. That was pretty sick.” Jay shuddered.

“That sounds really... Dangerous,” Ben said, frowning. “Sounds like that kid could’ve been seriously hurt, or killed.”

“But he wasn’t, and it was actually just kind of funny,” Jay said. Ben shook his head and Mal laughed.

“What do you guys do during parties, then?” She said. “Besides drink plain soda and eat fresh food.”

“None of that, surely,” Lonnie said, with a disbelieving laugh. “No bear traps or guns or anything that could maim someone. Truth or dare sounds, fun, though. We should do that.”

Playing truth or dare sober with no chance of anyone getting maimed seemed kind of lame to Jay, but everyone agreed to it, and the word spread. Carlos peeked his head from behind the couch as everyone gathered together to play the game, and Jay waved him over. Carlos seemed suspicious but came over. Jay really couldn’t help but notice for the billionth time that he looked so good here in Auradon. He wore his jersey over his usual clothes, the blue and yellow clashing with the red, black, and white but to Jay it was a good look on him. Carlos sat on the floor, close to Jay, shoulder bumping into his knee. Dude followed him and Jay realized he hadn’t even noticed the dog. He was quickly just becoming a part of Carlos.

“Okay,” Lonnie was standing in the center of the room, clapping her hands. “Truth or Dare! If you skip a dare you have to answer two truths and no skipping truths. You can’t choose the person who chose you and everyone goes before repeats!

“And of course, be good!” But Lonnie had a look on her face like she didn’t really mean it. Jay laughed under his breath. “First- Audrey, truth or dare?” She chirped. 

“Truth,” Audrey said, with an innocent smile on her face. Just like a good princess should; Jay rolled his eyes.

“Okay, hmm,” Lonnie pretended to think. “Did you... Ever kiss Chad before today?” She smiled.

Audrey’s fake smile faltered and she let out an awkward fake laugh. “Um, obviously no? I was dating Ben.”

“You sure?” Lonnie chirped.

“Yes,” Audrey bit out.

“Oh well, I guess I forgot to make a penalty for lying so... Let’s move on, your turn,” Lonnie sat down, looking satisfied and smoothing out the skirt of her blue and yellow dress. Mal let out a laugh from where she sat beside Jay, while Audrey’s face turned pink. Ben wasn’t paying attention to the game, instead just paying with Mal’s hair.

“Mal,” Audrey said, cooly, turning to her with a glare. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare, duh,” Mal said. 

“Okay, fine,” Audrey said, annoyed. “I dare you to call Fairy Godmother and tell her you want to go home.”

“Come on, Audrey,” Mal said, rolling her eyes.

“It’s just a prank,” Audrey said, batting her eyes with false innocence.

“It’s just boring,” Mal said, faking a yawn. “Someone give me a phone,” she said, and Audrey handed her’s out, Fairy Godmother already pulled up in her contacts.

“Wait, what’s happening?” Ben said, looking away from Mal.

“A fun prank,” Mal said, mimicking Audrey’s high pitched voice. Audrey glared at her. Mal stared at the phone, Jay looked at her waiting for her to do something but she seemed a bit frozen. She was just staring at it, he wondered if the prank was getting to her. If she wanted to go home so bad that she didn’t think she could say it without it sounding too genuine. Carlos leaned over Jay, though, and looked at the phone.

“You just tap the screen, I think,” he said. Mal’s face went red.

“I knew that,” she said. She tapped the screen and it started ringing.

“Turn on speaker,” Audrey said, and Mal glared at her. Carlos reached out and tapped somewhere on the screen. A ringing sound filled the room and a couple of kids laughed.

“I knew that,” Mal hissed again, glaring at Carlos. Carlos shrugged.

“Sorry for helping,” he said with an eye rool. Fairy Godmother picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hi?” Mal said, voice pitched up. “It’s me, Audrey. I’m at this party and want to go home because no one likes me since I’m such a bitch.”

Audrey’s jaw dropped and Jay burst out laughing.

“Um,” Fairy Godmother’s voice came out, sounding shocked and confused. “I’m sorry? Are you okay, Audrey, where are you?”

“Oh, shoot, wrong number!” Mal said, twirling her hair. “Bye bye!” She hung up. “Good enough?”

“You-“ Audrey started, face red.

“I did exactly what you asked of me,” Mal said. “Jane, truth or dare?”

Jay grinned at Mal while Audrey fumed, complaining to Lonnie. Lonnie simply replied something about how she would just have to be more specific next time. Jay was really starting to like her.

Jane chose truth, and Mal went easy on her. With the false cheer of an Auradon girl she said, “if you could date any boy in this room who would it be?” Jay snorted. 

Jane sat with her knees drawn up to her chest not too far from them. She twirled a curl of long black hair around her fingers, frowning in thought. “I dunno… Maybe Bash?” Her face was bright pink at this point. Jay didn’t even know who this Bash was.

Mal leaned over to him, “the whole things gonna be this boring,” she whispered.

Jay elbowed her. “No thanks to you,” he groaned, but she just stuck her tongue out at him and he flipped her off while she laughed.

“Just trying not to rock the boat,” she whispered.

The game went on like that, a mix of extremely boring truths, and a few entertaining dares. Arabella, one of the cheerleaders, made Evie confess she’d never been kissed when she chose truth. Evie dared one of the band kids, Hannah, to kiss all the boys in the room she’d ever had a crush on. A few truths and dares later, Carlos got dared to sit in Aziz’s lap for the rest of the game, which really pissed Jay off but he didn’t know what to do about it. Jay avoided Aziz, the son of Aladdin and Jasmine, like the plague, despite him being on the tourney team as well. Aziz did the same, although Jay had caught him glaring at him a few times. Now Jay was glaring at Herkie, their teammate who was giggling after giving out the dare.

Carlos dared Doug to prank call his uncle Grumpy. He laughed one of his stupid beautiful genuine laughs as Doug did whatever he did. Jay was just staring at Carlos, with dude in his lap and sitting in Aziz’s. He almost fell from laughing and Aziz had to hold his waist, laughing as well. Jay felt irritated and sick, he wanted to march across the room and grab Carlos’s arm and pull him away, back across the room beside Jay where he belonged.

Doug dared Chad to chug a two liter bottle of soda, which was pretty funny. Even more so when Chad threw up after, that had Jay laughing harder than he had the entire night.

Chad glared at Jay, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Jay, truth or dare,” he coughed.

“Dare,” Jay said, eyes narrowed and grinning wide at the challenge.

“I dare you to kiss Carlos.”

Jay let out a shocked laugh, hearing one come from Mal beside him as well. “Uh, I’m not doing that?” he said. He avoided looking at Carlos, Mal was still laughing. He glared at her. She had an apologetic look in her eyes, even though she was still snickering.

“So you take the truths?” Chad said, smirking.

“Yeah, sure, I’m not gonna kiss Carlos. So.”

“Okay, uh,” Chad said, smiling to himself. He was so fucking annoying. “Are you a virgin?”

“What? No,” Jay said, truthful. There were some surprised looks around the room, which surprised Jay. Had Lonnie not just been saying they were still teenagers? Were they all so chaste? Chad looked surprised, too, like he hadn’t expected that answer. 

“Wait, for real? How many girls have you had sex with?”

Jay almost said ‘none’ automatically, and Mal let out a snicker beside him, again. He glared at her.

“I don’t know, lost count,” Jay said, glaring. “I can add your girlfriend to the number, though, if she’d like.” Jay winked at Audrey and she gave a shocked gasp, her cheeks going pink.

“Was Mal one of them?” Chad asked.

“Oh my god,” Jay said, making a move to jump at Chad. Lonnie stood up, though, stepping between them.

“Calm down, boys,” she said. “Chad, you only get two truths.”

“What’s happening?” Ben said, he was looking around the room at the mention of Mal’s name. He was really out of it, Jay noted. Someone would probably call Mal out on the love potion if it didn’t wear down to a normal level of infatuation soon enough.

“Maybe we’re done for the night,” Evie said, standing up. “I need my beauty sleep, and early to bed early to rise and all that, you know.” She grabbed Mal’s arm, and Mal nodded.

“Yeah, good idea, Evie,” Mal said. “Boys, let’s go.”

Carlos jumped from Aziz’s lap and he and Jay followed Mal and Evie from the common room quickly.

“‘Night,” Jay said, bumping Chad’s shoulder on the way out. Evie gave Lonnie a quick hug on the way out, like they were real friends.

“Lonnie is pretty cool,” she said, when they reached the stairs to the boy’s dorms.

Mal nodded. “When our parents come and destroy everything good over here we should ask her to join our gang.”

Jay snorted. “Yeah, right. She’s cool but I don’t know if she’ll be so cool with _us_ after we betray everyone here.”

“Come on, guys, let’s not focus on that stuff,” Evie said. “That was kind of fun, wasn’t it?”

“If you find childish gossip fun,” Mal said.

“Maybe I do,” Evie huffed and Mal laughed.

“I’m gonna go upstairs, I still want to finish this chapter,” Carlos said, a little awkward since he hadn’t even been really present for most of the party, Jay guessed. Dude barked at his feet. “And Dude needs to be fed. So, I’ll see you in a bit, Jay.” Carlos left, Dude bounding up the stairs after him.

“Since when was that dog his?” Mal asked. “He feeds him?”

“From the second he held him, I think,” Jay laughed.

“It’s cute,” Evie said, smiling after Carlos.

“You should’ve told the truth to that last one,” Mal said to Jay, changing the subject. “That would’ve been fun.”

“Oh shut up,” Jay said, frowning. “I was shocking enough already, didn’t realize I was in a room full of virgins.” Mal laughed and Evie just stared at them, thinking. She didn’t ask questions, though, just watched as Mal and Jay talked. She did that sometimes, and then she’d just know all of their secrets. It was like a superpower.

“I’m going to bed now, I guess,” he said, heading up the stairs as the girls wished him goodnight.

In his and Carlos’s room, Carlos was settling into bed, wearing pajamas. A pair of black shorts and a tank top Jay had lent him after Carlos had complained that the room was stuffy and almost just went without a shirt for sleeping. Jay had offered the tank top quickly the second night when this conversation had come up. Carlos pulled out his book while Jay went to the bathroom to change into his own pajamas. Dude was done with his food by the time he came out, lying partially on Carlos’s lap, sleeping.

“Hey,” Carlos said, when Jay went to go get into bed.

“Yeah?” Jay said, looking over his shoulder.

“Was that true? What you said, about not being a virgin?” Carlos wasn’t looking at him, his face pink.

“Yeah—I mean. Mostly,” Jay said. “I, uh, haven’t had sex with _that_ many girls. I mean, I could count it.” He could count zero, easy.

Carlos nodded, slowly. “I just... didn’t know that.”

“It’s not really a secret, just never came up,” Jay said; embarrassed. “We don’t really talk about our sex lives, do we?”

“What’s it like?” Carlos still wasn’t looking at Jay.

“I mean. It’s fun.” Jay felt really awkward, talking about sex with Carlos. “I actually have only done it with one person, though.” Carlos nodded. “And it wasn’t Mal, okay.”

Carlos laughed, now, looking at Jay finally. “I cant imagine you describing sex with Mal as fun, so I didn’t really think that. She’s like your sister, anyway.”

Jay laughed. “Yeah, she is.”

Carlos read for a while more, silent. Jay didn’t sleep yet, either, the excitement of the day still running through his blood. The love potion, the game, the party. He’d been so excited to pull Carlos into the game, even though Carlos hadn’t shown any interest in going onto the field. Jay wanted to have him there, though. Running around with Carlos was one of the best parts of tourney.

Eventually Carlos turned off his reading light and the room was dark. Jay lay down on his side, facing Carlos. He watched as he pushed Dude to the side of the bed, petting him and murmuring apologies as he got comfortable. Jay closed his eyes, smiling. Ben’s coronation wasn’t far off, and who knew what would become of all of them after that, but Jay decided to do as Evie said. Just enjoy this as it lasted.

-

Jay and Mal were eating lunch together when Ben asked her out on their first date. She’d turned bright red as she agreed to it, before she stormed off, hissing to Jay that she needed to see Evie. Jay had laughed, and Ben had smiled off after Mal. Jay wondered what it would be like if this was real, if Ben really liked Mal and Mal really liked him. They’d be a fun couple, he thought. And how much fun he could have teasing her after over it.

“I had dreams of her,” Ben said, looking after Mal. Jay hadn’t realized he was still there. He sat down, next to Jay.

Jay laughed. “That’s a good line, you should tell her that,” Jay said, knowing how much Mal would hate the corny line.

“No, I’m serious,” Ben said, and his eyes were clear when he looked at Jay. The love potion seemed to wear down to a more natural level, and with Mal nowhere near them he just seemed like the same normal Ben he was at tourney practice.

“You had dreams of Mal, before we got here?” Jay said, disbelieving.

“Yeah,” Ben said. “I didn’t know who she was, though. Or even that she was a real person from the Isle, I thought she was just like... A manifestation of my guilt over what I was letting happen over there. The idea of an isle kid, you know? I was pretty shocked when she got out of the limo.”

“That’s... Really crazy,” Jay said, not knowing how to respond. “And now you’re in love with her?”

Ben gave a happy sigh. “Yeah... She’s just really awesome.”

Jay thought of that conversation for the rest of the day, what Ben said made it sound like there were higher powers dictating all of this, like it was fate that they were taken to Auradon. Jay had never heard of fate in the favor of villains, though.

Mal was different after their date. Quieter, like she was thinking. Not scheming, just thinking. Jay decided to give her space to think.

-

Jay was happy to see his dad in the video call. He had a lot he wanted to tell him, about tourney, about all the gold that was here, literally and figuratively. He wanted to tell him that he missed him and he couldn’t wait to come home, because when he saw him that was all true. 

But Carlos was shaking, Evie was standing there awkwardly, and Mal looked at a loss for words. So Jay hung up the call. 

His dad didn’t really seem to care about talking to him, anyway. Too busy arguing with Cruella.

Parent’s day was fun, though. At first, that is. The Auradon kids did their little song and dance, Mal met Ben’s parents, Jay and Carlos ate so many sweets he thought he might get sick. They played games, and it was like nothing Jay had ever imagined. It was still too bright, but his friends were there. That was nice.

Then it was awful, not even Lonnie and Doug stood by them. Even as Evie basically begged Doug to. God, Jay had really wanted to punch Chad’s face in. He really deserved it. Evie was the most good of them all, and he tried to put his hands on her? Tried to say she did anything wrong when he was the one who lead her on, who used her? Jay saw red.

“You shouldn’t of done that in front of all the parents like that,” Evie said, later when the two of them had head out to grab food from the dining hall. Carlos and Mal remaining in the boys’ room working on the finer details of the plot. “Mal’s right, we’ll have plenty of time for payback later.”

“I think you belong here,” Jay confessed quietly.

“Don’t say that,” Evie said, sighing. “Chad’s right, I was using him. I came here to get a prince, that’s the only reason I talked to him. He just saw right through me.”

“Come on, Evie,” Jay said. “You’re... You fit in here. You’re all golden like the rest of them.”

Evie gave Jay a disbelieving look. “Are you doubting the plan?” she asked.

Jay frowned. That was’t an option, doubting the plan. So instead, “I’m loyal to Mal, I always have been. I trust her.”

Evie just stared at him, before nodding wordlessly. The two of them got the food for the group and went back to the room.

-

The night before Ben’s coronation, Jay couldn’t sleep. Of course. He had to talk to Mal, he realized. He _needed_ to talk to her. He rolled out of bed, restless and anxious, stopping to look at the tourney trophy... The MVP always got to keep it in his room, but that hadn’t stopped Jay from feeling surprised and oddly touched when Ben told him he was supposed to keep it. That they trusted him with it.

He looked at Carlos, curled up on his bed facing away from Jay. Dude looked up at Jay, though, eyes bright. Jay couldn’t imagine Carlos just returning to his mother with the dog, especially not after the Parents’ Day call. He wondered what Carlos was planning to do after everything went down the next day, if he’d run off into the woods with the dog to protect him.

The girl’s dorms were strictly off limits to boys after dark, as were the boys’ for the girls. Mal always used some sort of magic to get past it, though, so they could plot in the boys room after dark. Jay didn’t have any magic, though, and they’d found out quickly that while the school was largely magic-free, rules enforcement tended to be a spot of lenience for Fairy Godmother on that point. Going into an out of bounds area would quickly make you feel violently ill.

So Jay went outside and threw some pebbles at Mal, and Evie’s, window. “Mal!” He hissed, and he felt like he was back on the isle, trying to get Mal’s attention at the Bargain Castle so she’d come out for a raid or a party or just for company.

“Jay?” He heard a voice say behind himself. He looked over his shoulder, and he saw Mal standing behind him, a small box in her hands.

“Oh,” he said. “You’re out here.”

“Yeah, I am—why are you?” Mal frowned. Jay didn’t had a good answer, he just knew he needed to talk to Mal, that he missed her. He was at a loss for words, but of course, Mal understood. She sighed and sat down on a nearby bench, Jay following her. Maybe she just wanted to talk to him, too.

“Worried about tomorrow?” Mal asked, saying it smugly as if a taunt. As if she wasn’t worried. Jay could read her, though. He saw the way she gripped onto the box in her hands like it was all she had, he recognized the look on her face from right before she’d stopped Evie from grabbing her mother’s scepter, saving her from a thousand year sleep. As much as Mal understood Jay, he understood her just as well.

“Of course not,” he said, playing along because he didn’t know what else to do. They were so close to having to return to this, this cold feeling. Where even if they were friends, they couldn’t really _be_ friends. “I don’t get nervous. We’ll do what we need to do tomorrow.”

Mal looked at him, smiling. Jay saw that her eyes were puffy and red, now. His cocky smile faltered. He’d never seen her cry, she’d said she couldn’t. He didn’t believe that, though, she was still part human after all.

“We have to, right?” He said, thinking about his conversation with Evie. Mal nodded.

“We have to.”

Jay leaned back, looking at the sky. It was a clear night, the moon illuminating everything. Everything was so different here than on the isle, you could rarely see the moon there. He remembered how it was visible on the beach, though, illuminating Harry Hook’s smile and making him feel like he was somewhere different. The moon was almost always out at night, here, he was always somewhere different. He felt brave, suddenly, and so he spoke, “at what cost, though, right?”

Mal chuckled beside him. “Yeah...”

“You should’ve seen Carlos tonight—when I left the room. He lets the dog sleep in his bed,” Jay laughed towards the sky. He could feel Mal look at him, see right through his mask. She was silent for a long time, long enough for Jay to regret saying that. He sat back up, looking at Mal, now, seeing the concern and understanding on her face. A part of him knew she knew about Carlos and his tricks and what he’d taken from Jay, but she never said anything beyond her cruel teasing. Right now she looked downright sympathetic, though. “When all this is done, I think the first thing my dad does will be to find a princess to kidnap and marry off to me.”

Mal chuckled, “wouldn’t you love that.” Jay wouldn’t. Mal knew that, too, she was just being mean. It really was about time to get back to that, huh? His smile fell and she sighed. “We’re different, now, huh? Guess that’s what we get for making friends.”

“Yeah,” Jay said.

“Yeah,” Mal repeated, and that’s when she broke. Suddenly tears spilled over her cheeks, her face scrunched up in sadness as she cried. Jay reacted on instinct, pulling her close and holding her in his arms. Tight. She cried into his shoulder, and he held her. “I don’t know if I can do this,” she cried.

“You can, you can,” Jay said, but his hands were shaking as well as he pat Mal on her head. 

“Fuck!” She swore. “It’s not fair!” She pulled away, and her face was a mess with tears and snot. Her eyes flashed green and angry and sad. “We don’t deserve this! You deserve to be happy, Jay! Happy!“ Mal sobbed, and Jay felt panicked. He didn’t want her to say it, he didn’t know how to accept it.

“I know,” he cut her off.

“I deserve to be happy!” She said. “I want to be happy!” She sobbed and cried, leaning into Jay and he rubbed her back and he ached all over. Eventually she stopped, her sobs subsiding first into hiccups then into nothing but shaky breaths. Jay lifted her head by her chin.

“Mal... you can do whatever you want,” he said. “You’re Mal!” Mal smiled weakly. “Tomorrow is going to change everything, and you control it.” He thought about how Harry had said that, that everything was going to change. How he’d denied it, thinking that things would be easy in Auradon. That he’d hate it and want to leave, he didn’t expect to see Carlos and Evie shine so golden and right and safe, he didn’t expect to see Mal fall for a prince, he didn’t expect to have so much fun. 

He didn’t want her to take the wand, he knew this now. He knew she didn’t want to either, because he understood her.

They split up in the hall. She gave him a quiet goodnight. Jay didn’t ask what was in the box, he guessed it was the anti-love potion he’d heard her talk about with Evie earlier that night.

He returned to his room to find Carlos sitting up in his bed, awake, Dude in his lap. Carlos gave him a nervous smile. Jay offered a reassuring one in return. He went to go climb back into his bed before changing his mind. He turned around and took a seat beside Carlos on his. Carlos let out a shaky breath, looking up at him with wide eyes, and leaned into Jay, who wrapped his arm around him, tucking him under his chin.

“We’re gonna do this,” Carlos said. “We have to.”

“Yeah,” Jay said, breathing him in. Even though he didn’t really know. Mal was strong, stronger than anyone else Jay knew, definitely way stronger than himself. He didn’t know what that strength would allow her to do tomorrow, though. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how defying their parents would shake out. He tried not to think about how Ben had said they could stay forever. Would he still feel that after the anti-love potion? 

Carlos and Dude fell asleep like that, tucked up against Jay. Jay closed his eyes, holding Carlos close. It took a long time for sleep to come to him.

-

Jay let out a shaky breath of relief when Mal chose good. 

“We are not out parents.” He could have cried right then. When she told him that stealing didn’t make him happy he felt it. He needed to hear that. He smiled at Carlos, and Carlos smiled that perfect incredible smile of his and Jay felt like a world of possibility had just opened up before him.

Evie was crying, and Jay was so, so happy.

He chose good, he didn’t even have to think about it. He would follow Mal anywhere, and he was so grateful she wanted to take him here, to goodness, to Auradon.

Evie chose good, crying and smiling like this was all she had wanted to do from day one. She probably had.

Carlos was in disbelief, his eyes shone with hope and fear and he chose good because he trusted them.

They fought Maleficent and won, because they were family and they loved each other and Harry had been right about your crew being your strength, and wrong about there being anything wrong with Jay’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk how this chapter ended up being so long but i’m glad for it. please enjoy 😇


	6. Six

Happily ever after wasn’t that simple, of course. Mal began to drift away, Jay noticed. She was always busy with some sort of royalty thing since she was Ben’s girlfriend and about to become a Lady of the Court. Whatever that meant. One day she walked into the pre-calc class with blonde hair and Jay felt shocked. Her face was bright pink, and she ignored Jay when he laughed as she sat down next to him. Pre-calc was becoming his favorite class, if only because it was the only time he really got to just spend time with Mal. It was hard, but he’d usually just ask Carlos for help with his homework and he did a better job explaining everything than the teacher’s droning voice did, so he didn’t care too much about paying attention.

“Trying out a new look, princess?” he said. Mal glared at him.

“Me and Ben are going to visit Chad’s parents’s castle in Charmington this weekend,” she hissed. “I just want to make a good impression. I ‘represent Ben and Auradon’ now, as I’m constantly reminded.”

“So you’re trying to not be a VK, huh,” Jay said. Mal frowned.

“I’m still me,” she insisted. “I just want to look... More Auradon. For this whole ‘visiting other kingdoms’ thing. Then the purple has to come back.”

She seemed to give in at least a little bit, though, as a couple days later she had purple tips in her hair, which didn’t seem to make it better in Jay’s eyes. Jay figured she would sort it out soon enough, and he had his own things to worry about.

The tourney season ended and Jay kept his title of MVP, and the time came for R.O.A.R. tryouts. He’d joked to Mal that she should sign up, and she just laughed, saying “as if I’d have time for that right now, Jay.”

Most of the tourney boys tried out. Jay had to beg Carlos to.

“I wasn’t even good at tourney!” Carlos whined as Jay dragged him out to the gym.

“Yes you were,” Jay said. “You were the fastest on the team!”

“But there’s no running in R.O.A.R.,” Carlos said.

“Yes, but there is fighting. You can fight, you’re from the isle!” Jay said. “Come on, we’re gonna practice today so on Monday we’ll be ready for tryouts.”

Jay had already been practicing, determined to get onto the team. He showed Carlos the forms, and he had been right. Carlos kept up well, quick and smart as he was. He’d gotten a long stronger after the work of the tourney season, too. He looked really good, all toned and tanned from playing outside. It was distracting sometimes, especially as it got warmer and Carlos dressed for the warm weather, his arms always out for display. That day he wore a fitted black and white polo tee shirt, all the buttons undone, and white cutoff sweat shorts that fell above his knees. He was growing his hair out, and it looked good on him. Jay wanted to mess it up, run his hand through the soft and frizzy white hair. Right then in the gym, sweaty and adrenalin fueled Jay considered doing something about the way he wanted Carlos. He wondered if that would be okay, if he just tossed aside the sword and grabbed Carlos’s face and kissed him breathless. 

But all of the boys in Auradon seemed to like girls. Everyone assumed he did, too, and he couldn’t blame them. Even though he didn’t steal from girls anymore, he still flirted with them. If all the boys in Auradon liked girls and he was a boy in Auradon now, he’d just. Like girls. Or something like that.

So he didn’t kiss Carlos at all.

Jay fixed Carlos’s posture, his hand on the small of Carlos’s back. Carlos looked at him and smiled, all golden. The kind of smile that made Jay want to risk everything, but was also the reminder of why he couldn’t. He couldn’t rock the boat and risk losing the new, golden Carlos.

-

Jay went to the museum that weekend, to the hall of villains. It was raining out and he guessed the gloom made him feel nostalgic for another lifetime. He looked up at the wax figure of his dad. He wished he could talk to him. He didn’t know how the others were feeling about their parents, they didn’t really. Talk about it. Well, he’d tried to ask Carlos about it once, and Carlos had just been confused when Jay asked if he ever thought about his mom.

“I try not to,” Carlos said. “I think I’ll be happiest if I never hear her name again, honestly.”

Jay didn’t feel like that. He missed his dad. He was stupid and wrong about pretty much everything, but he was also. His dad. Jay loved him. He was funny sometimes, too, Jay used to laugh just listening to him and Iago swap insults, chiming in with his own and sometimes making his dad laugh, too. He wondered what his dad would be like in Auradon, if he could be good like Jay was now. If they were just a normal family who baked chocolate chip cookies and. Did whatever else normal Auradon families did.

The Jafar in the figure didn’t look like he could be good, but Jay felt like his actual dad might be able to. Maybe. Jay felt like he had learned a lot about the golden rule, which was that gold wasn’t just money. It was moments and people, and Jay wanted to show his dad that. Show him that they could have all the gold in the world, just by being together as a family. It was so corny but… Jay kind of believed it.

“Jay?” He turned around, seeing Lonnie standing in the museum. She had a shy smile on her face.

“Hey?” Jay said, surprised to see her, and Lonnie smiled a bit wider. 

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said. 

“Same to you,” Jay said.

“I’m working on a history project,” Lonnie explained. “And it’s a rainy day, it’s nice to get out and do an indoors activity.” She looked past him, at the villain statues. “Those always creeped me out,” Jay frowned, feeling embarrassed. “I mean—wax figures in general. They’ve got one of my mom down the hall and it used to give me nightmares,” she laughed. 

“Yeah, they’re pretty disturbing,” Jay laughed, too, feeling himself relax a bit, and Lonnie walked up to stand beside him, looking at the figures.

“Does your dad really look like that?” she asked.

“No, not anymore,” Jay said. “He’s all fat and grey now.” Lonnie laughed again, shaking her head.

“Hey, I just wanted to... Apologize,” she said, tone shifting to serious. “Over parents’ day. Since I never did. I should’ve stood up for you guys.”

Jay didn’t expect that. “Yeah, you should’ve.”

Lonnie nodded. “It was just... hard? But what you did was even harder, I guess.” She looked back at the figure. “You guys really defied all these villains… And they’re your _parents_! I don’t think I could’ve done it.”

“It was an easy choice in the moment,” Jay admitted. “The hardest part has kind of just been knowing I won’t get to see my dad again…”

Lonnie gave Jay a curious look. “You miss him?”

“Of course,” Jay said. “He’s my dad.”

“I thought they didn’t love you, though,” she said, then seemed to realize how harsh that sounded. “I mean—I mean, well. You said that. Kind of.”

Jay shrugged. “I don’t know how much my dad really did care about me but... I didn’t care about people back on the isle, either, and if I did I didn’t show it. It’s like what Fairy Godmother said, everyone can learn to love.”

Lonnie nodded again, slow. “You’re right.”

She stood close next to him, silent. Jay wondered stupidly if she liked him, like _that_ , he wondered for a moment if he could like her. He couldn’t, of course, not like that. But it was a nice idea.

-

Jay and Carlos both made it onto the R.O.A.R. team, and when Ben had to pull out for the same reasons Mal was never around, the coach promoted him to team captain. He felt like he had when he’d been able to keep the MVP trophy, touched and surprised.

Jay and Carlos walked back to their room together that day, Carlos reading a book as they walked. He was even more committed to getting into senior year the next year. He’d said that if they were staying in Auradon there was no way he wasn’t graduating school with them.

“It feels weird how much they trust me,” Jay said.

“Really?” Carlos said, looking up.

“Yeah, like... Even Aziz doesn’t glare at me so much,” Jay said.

“You know he just wants you to say something about... Everything, right?” Carlos offered.

“What am I supposed to say?” Jay said, confused. “My dad’s an idiot, I know that, he knows that. I disavowed him in front of everyone and now I never get to see him again. What else does the guy want from me?”

Carlos shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe he just wants, like... An apology.”

“I didn’t do anything, though,” Jay said, frowning.

“You know they love their apologies here, though,” Carlos said. “I feel like someone’s apologizing to me over something every single day. It’s exhausting, I don’t know when I’m supposed to do it in return.”

Jay smiled now. “Yeah, Lonnie apologized to me about not standing up for us at parents’ day the other day.”

“That was so long ago!” Carlos said, laughing.

“Yeah, it was kind of nice, though?” He said. “I kind of talked to her about my dad, too.”

“Oh?” Carlos said, looking up at him with curious eyes. Jay nodded. “What did you say?”

“Just like... I miss him,” Jay said. “Which was probably a stupid thing to say to an Auradon kid, but we were at the museum, in that room with the statues or whatever of our parents and... Yeah.”

“I didn’t know you felt like that,” Carlos said, he’d stopped walking so Jay did, too.

“I mean he’s my dad, and things weren’t always bad,” Jay shrugged. 

“They were for me,” Carlos confessed. “I mean, pretty much. I don’t think I have a single good memory of my mom.”

“She’s your mom, she must of cared about you to some extent,” Jay said, and Carlos shook his head.

“I really don’t think she did,” he said. “Except maybe when it came to how I affected her reputation, that’s why she made me have those minions. She was just embarrassed about how weak I was...” Carlos shook his head again, as if trying to shake something from it. “It’s fine, we’re in Auradon now. I’m never going to see Cruella again.”

They returned to their room and Carlos left to take Dude on a walk. Jay felt sick and sad and bad for telling Lonnie everything he had. He trusted her, but what if someone else had heard and got the wrong idea? Here he was trying not to rock the boat and then he opened his stupid mouth waxing poetically about how much he missed his evil father.

-

Mal was sitting with Aziz at lunch one day, as well as Evie and Lonnie. Carlos was spending most of his lunch hours in the library studying. Jay would feel so much better after he finally got into their senior year class and he could have him back all the time. Jay sat down with them, Aziz was talking animatedly and Mal was taking notes, nodding. Her blond hair was pulled up in a bun and she wore a pastel pink dress, looking nothing like herself.

“What’s up?” Jay asked. 

“Jasmine and Aladdin are next up on our tour so and apparently things are even more different in Agrabah than here,” Mal said, forcing a smile. “So Aziz is helping me with like... Cultural customs and... Stuff.”

“I wish I was going,” Lonnie said. “I love Agrabah, their food is so good. Did your dad ever make you guys food from there, Jay?”

“Um, no, we didn’t really have stuff like that on the isle,” Jay said, feeling uncomfortable. Aziz looked uncomfortable, too. “I’m sure it’s really good, though.”

“Oh yeah,” Mal said. “Your dad is from Agrabah... Don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Sorry.”

“I don’t really know anything about the place, though. Besides, like, it’s a desert and my dad once controlled everything there and one day he ‘will again’,” Jay said with an eye roll and a dramatic wave of his hand, Evie and Lonnie laughed while Mal shook her head.

“Spot on impression,” she said, smiling. Jay felt glad to see her smile like that, even just for a moment.

“The sultan controls Agrabah,” Aziz said, glaring at Jay. “Your dad didn’t.”

“My dad controlled the sultan,” Jay said simply as he took a bite of his sandwich, because it’s what his dad said. Aziz glared at him and Jay realized he was really rocking the boat now. “I mean—you’re right. You’re right. My dad was wrong.” Aziz nodded.

“He was,” he said.

“Um, I’m... sorry, by the way. About what my dad did,” Jay said, even though it sounded so fake. “I feel bad about it,” which was true, at least. He just didn’t really know what it had to do with him and Aziz, since it wasn’t like Aziz was born yet, or Jay, and his dad hadn’t really accomplished anything besides getting himself trapped inside a lamp then trapped on a prison island.

Aziz looked pleased, though, and accepted the apology. So Jay guessed that Carlos was right. He listened as Aziz told them about Agrabah and Mal took notes. Jay actually did find some of the stories and customs familiar, stuff he remembered from his father mentioning in his childhood. Jay wondered if he was even allowed to go to Agrabah. The first time Mal had left Auradon city she’d come back really upset, a trip to Seaside to visit Queen Ariel and King Eric had taught her that not all of Auradon was as accepting as the people of Auradon Prep. People had glared at her on the streets, a stranger had yelled at her to go back to the isle where she “belonged”. Jay kind of got why she’d bleached her hair after that.

-

Jay told Carlos he had no intention of asking anyone to cotillion, because he didn’t. Sure, he wanted to go with Carlos as a date, but he had decided that just wasn’t possible as more girl/boy pairs began to match up for the event with not a single discrepancy. When Carlos proceeded to ask for advice, Jay panicked. He gave Carlos nothing, wary of the whole situation, suddenly. He didn’t think Carlos was planning on taking anyone to cotillion, why would he? He never talked about any girls, definitely never any guys. Jay hadn’t thought that he’d had a tight time limit on figuring out what exactly the rules for relationships between boys were in Auradon and deciding how to proceed with his feelings for Carlos.

And then Jane was there, and apparently the clock had struck midnight and Jay was out of time. He panicked when Carlos bombed at asking her to the cotillion, but it was clear he’d been trying to ask her. He dragged him away, Evie and Mal laughing after them, and Jan standing there looking pretty and confused.

Jay’s mind was racing, when they were far enough away from the girls he turned Carlos around.

“You like Jane?” he said, heart jumping up into his throat, chest tight.

“Uh,” Carlos said. “I mean, she’s pretty and nice. I think it would be... Nice to go to cotillion with her. We have english together, she’s funny.”

Jay wondered if he should just make his move now, tell Carlos how he felt before this Jane business went any further. But as Carlos looked up at him, brows knit together in confusion, shining and gold as he was, Jay couldn’t. He couldn’t risk it. He had to admit that he was terrified of breaking this unspoken rule that required boys like girls. What if Carlos said yes? Would they get sent back to the isle just for being different like that? Jay decided it was like Mal with her blonde hair. He was just adapting for appearances, keeping the VKs’ image up.

“Jay?” Carlos said, and Jay realized he’d been spacing out for a while. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jay said. “Just surprised, I didn’t know you were into her. You should definitely take her to Cotillion.”

Carlos smiled shyly. “You saw how I messed up back there, though.”

“Ask Mal for help, I think she’s using magic to fix all of her problems right now, maybe she can help you,” Jay suggested. Carlos nodded.

“That’s a good idea, actually,” he said, still smiling. “Thanks, Jay!”

“Yeah,” was all Jay could say before they said goodbye and went to their separate classes. He couldn’t pay attention to anything at all for the entire class, though. Mal came in late and seemed to be in the same boat, flipping frantically through her spell book the whole time.

-

“So Mal just left?!” Jay said, panicked as Evie paced back and forth in his and Carlos’s room, distressing an Auradon prep jacket as she did so. Ben stood in the doorway, looking pale and anxious. Mal had left, she’d broke down under the pressure and left… Jay couldn’t believe it. He felt sick.

“Yes, but we’re gonna go get her, it’s going to be fine,” Evie said, sounding a bit like she was reassuring herself more than anything. Jay looked over at Carlos and saw the horror and fear on his face.

“I promise you guys won’t get stuck there again,” Ben said weakly, noting Carlos’s expression. 

“Of course,” Jay said.

“We have to go, though,” Carlos said, nodding slowly. Jay nodded, too, head feeling heavy. How could he have let this go so far? He felt so selfish, he’d been so focused on his own tiny problems he’d completely left Mal to drift away. Carlos looked at him and frowned even deeper. “Jay, don’t look like that. It’s not your fault.”

Ben looked up. “It’s my fault,” he said. “We had a fight earlier…”

Carlos shook his head, brow furrowed. He didn’t say anything, though. On their way out, Jay pulled him aside.

“Did Mal day something about this to you,” he asked.

“Kind of,” Carlos confessed. “She gave me this truth gummy for the, uh, Jane situation… And she told me she’d get sent back to the isle if she took it, and that she didn’t hate the idea of that.”

Jay frowned. “Shit… Shit.” Carlos nodded. “I should’ve seen this coming…”

“Jay, we can't blame ourselves, okay? We’ve all been busy, we’ve all been distracted…” he reached out and touched Jay’s arm. Jay gave him a small, strained smile in thanks, and Evie called back to them to tell them to hurry up.

Carlos’s expression was stony as they took the bridge over to the isle, gaze straight ahead and jaw set. Jay knew he had never wanted to return. He reached out and squeezed his thigh, a comforting gesture. Carlos just nodded stiffly.

They arrived back to the isle, hid the limo, and were ready to find Mal. They knew where she’d be, of course: their old hideout. Jay almost automatically headed for the Bargain Castle, though. He wondered how the place was faring with its old proprietor now a lizard in a tank

“The last thing we want is to run into our parents,” Carlos had said. He was right, of course, their parents were no doubt furious over the events six months ago, how they’d abandoned the plan. How they’d abandoned them, Jay thought, gritting his teeth. 

He looked down the road that would lead them to the Bargain Castle, right around the corner from Jafar’s Junk Shop. His dad wasn’t great at thieving, old and grey and out of shape as he was. Jay wondered how the shop was faring without him to stock the shelves, and how his dad was doing in general.

He followed the others to the warehouse. Ben went up to see Mal, to make up after their fight. Jay thought about mentioning his dad, but then he looked at his friends and saw Evie looking around the isle like she was seeing it for the first time. He saw Carlos looking around nervously while attempting to stand tall and tough. So Jay didn’t say anything.

Ben came back down, defeated. Jay wanted to run right up the stairs and tell Mal to just come home. He didn’t know what that meant, though. Were they not home?

Evie tried to talk to her, and then Ben was gone. Replaced by none other than Harry Hook.

Jay felt like he was having potentially the longest day of his life, and a reunion with Harry shook was the last thing he wanted. A part of his mind said it might actually be exactly what he wanted, but this wasn’t the time for _that_ part of his mind to be giving suggestions. This was about Ben being kidnapped, apparently.

Harry told them Uma’s terms.

“Seems you’ve lost your touch, Jay,” Harry said to him, looking him up and down before barking at Carlos as he left. Evie gave him a questioning look before Jay mentally said fuck it and scaled the warehouse’s stairwell wall to get to Mal.

Mal was sitting on the couch they’d managed to find and bring up there. It had been a hard get, but exciting because it was the first piece of furniture they’d dragged into the place and it made the warehouse look like a real hangout spot, not just an empty room with pillows and a stack of books on the floor. Evie had called their place their ‘sanctuary’ and Jay had laughed at her. 

Mal held her head in her hands, Jay wondered if she was crying. Her hair was straight and a pinkish purple, though so at least she looked like herself, and Jay wanted to let out a long breath of relief at that. He couldn’t, though. He went to pull the lever to unlock the door so the others could come up and Mal gave him a withering look making him pause.

“Look—I’m not coming back. You of all people should understand that,” she said, and Jay shrunk under the weight of her glare. Just a bit. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel it here either, the feeling like this is home.”

Jay sighed. “Of course this is home, Mal. But we have our lives in Auradon now.”

“But the freedom, Jay!” Mal insisted, turning on the couch to fully face him. “You miss it, don’t you, the freedom to just be ourselves. No stupid Auradon pressures.”

“There are plenty of pressures here, Mal,” Jay said, frowning. Mal stomped her foot, a little. She looked like she had a year ago, upset at a plot to hurt Evie failing. It wasn’t right. Jay was finding himself wanting to leave the isle again, it was too confusing.

“But it’s not like Auradon… I don’t belong there, Jay,” she said. There was an unspoken ‘neither do you’ that rang in his mind. He was like her, all isle, through and through, and he knew this but he couldn’t look back because being in Auradon wasn’t about him, it was about Evie and Carlos and not rocking the boat so they could all take advantage of the opportunities there. It was about Mal being with Ben, Jay having the chance to be something other than a thief, even if they couldn’t be everything they were on the isle, they still got to be _more_ in Auradon. That’s why they stayed there. He pulled the lever, unlocking the door. 

“Look, Shrimpy took Ben,” he said, as the others began running up the stairs. “So. We have to do something about that now.”

“What!” Mal jumped up.

“Yeah, guess I buried the lead a bit, there,” Jay said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m really trying to space updates better.... but its hard. i’m having too much fun!! anyway this document just hit 60k how exciting is that, so i’m almost at 100k in this whole project which is.... a lot! ive never written anything this long, much less a fully realized fic. about 10k left to write in this part and then i think part3 will probably end up being about ~30k
> 
> i hope this is an enjoyable read, lots of jumping around and dialogue as we go through d2!


	7. Seven

The wait for Mal to return from her meeting with Uma was painful. Evie spent it pacing around the hideout, moving stuff around aimlessly as if she was cleaning. Carlos was sitting on the couch spacing out, staring through the foggy windows and Jay didn’t know what to do, sitting next to Carlos with his arm around him, drumming his fingers against the cracked pleather of the back of the couch in an uneven beat.

“You don’t think Uma will hurt either of them, right?” Evie asked.

“No, she thinks bigger than that,” Jay sighed. “She’s gonna try and trade something for him… Something big, obviously.”

“What do you think she wants?” Carlos asked, quiet. “What could be worth all this trouble?”

“Leaving, probably,” Jay looked down. “Before we left last fall, Harry came to see me. He told me she was really pissed, and I think they’d been trying to plan something big before then… So I think they want to leave the isle.”

“Who doesn’t want to leave the isle, though?” Evie asked, sitting now at the little card table they had.

Jay shrugged. “I didn’t,” he said.

“Yeah, but that was just a tough boy act,” Evie said.

“Not really. This was my home, Mal was here and my dad was here and I thought I had everything in life figured out,” Jay sighed. “Before you guys I was kind of okay with this being all there was to life… I mean sure maybe I wanted some things more, but I wasn’t bothered about it.”

Evie gave Jay a sympathetic look. “I don’t know, I guess I always expected to leave one day… First the castle and then the isle, I’d think, and at the end of that would be a prince and happily ever after for me and my mom.”

“I just wanted more,” Carlos said quietly. “I didn’t care about going to Auradon but I just… Didn’t want all of life to be me doing housework for my mom and trying not to get beat up every day…”

“That’s what you guys have to get about Mal, and me: we didn’t think like that,” Jay said. “Maybe it’s because we weren’t banished to castles and were too big or powerful to bully at school but. This was home.”

Mal did eventually return, and it was like time was suddenly allowed to move again, and it moved quickly. Jay and Carlos were sent back to Auradon, which had Carlos breathing easier.

“Let me drive this time,” Carlos said when they got back to the car.

“You don’t have your license,” Jay said.

“And? We’re not even supposed to be over here,” Carlos frowned as Jay got into the driver seat, but he got into the passenger’s seat anyway.

They got back to school and had to kick Chad out of their room, when Jay asked Carlos about that he’d sighed and said that Chad had been doing that regularly, apparently.

“He copied a key after someone left the door unlocked one night,” Carlos glared at Jay.

“What makes you think it was me?” Jay said, laughing as if they weren’t on a mission to save one of their best friends from being murdered by pirates.

“It’s always you, you’re so forgetful sometimes,” Carlos rolled his eyes.

“Wait—so he came in while we were sleeping?” Jay said.

“Yeah,” Carlos said.

“I really don’t understand how we’re supposed to be the weird ones here,” Jay said, shaking his head.

The two of them fell asleep while they waited for the replica of the wand to be made, which was great since it took a long time and Jay was already exhausted. The pirates were definitely going to give them as hard a time as possible the next day, so he needed the rest. Maybe when he lived on the isle he could fight on no sleep, but he had quickly become accustomed to his eight hours that coach recommended. A few would have to do that day, though.

Doug almost caught them, and then Lonnie actually did. Jay was secretly relieved, Lonnie would be a good asset on their side. She might be an Auradon kid but she was strong and trustworthy.

The girls clearly agreed, hugging Lonnie when they arrived, happy to see her.

Noon arrived quickly, the group headed out to the docks. Jay hadn’t been there since Harry had shown him their ship. It was still floating, so that was a win for them, he guessed.

Ben pleaded with Uma to reconsider the situation, he offered her a chance. She laughed at him.

They traded the wand for the king and then all hell broke loose. It honestly kind of felt good, to just let loose and fight pirates again like they used to. Jay saw Lonnie enjoying herself, too, teasing the pirates and laughing. She fit in in a weird way where she didn’t fit in at all, actually.

Jay got into it one on one with Harry. Harry looked like he was really angry with him, which Jay didn’t really get. When he almost had him, sword and hook at his neck, he glared at him, teeth bared. Jay kind of missed him, even though there was something missing from the pirate’s expression now. Jay pushed him off, realizing he’d taken the hook with a laugh. He’d finally completed Mal’s dare. Harry surrendered then, an anxious look on his face.

“Look who’s lost their touch now, huh?” Jay said, before tossing the hook into the water. Harry glared at Jay before he jumped in after it.

Just before Jay ushered Lonnie out of there, although she seemed reluctant to leave, still laughing, Jay saw Uma let Mal go to help Harry out of the water. He left quickly.

-

Jay was always wary of sentimental feelings-talk, or as Carlos called it ‘girl-talk’. Mal had been quicker to accept that portion of friendship, and Jay could do it in one-on-one circumstances, but when it was the four of them… He always felt too exposed. They sat on the lawn, completely devoid of privacy, and Jay felt struck by how easily Carlos had returned to Auradon standards to even suggest having personal conversations in such a venue.

But Mal was suffering, Jay couldn’t ignore it anymore. When they all went their separate ways he held back. Mal was right, the two of them were different… Evie was right when she said they were all of the isle, but she didn’t know Mal in the same ways Jay did. She would probably never quite understand, she hadn’t grown up side by side with Mal. Hadn’t seen her grow under the isle’s pressure as Maleficent’s daughter.

“Come to Cotillion tonight, all right?” Jay said. “If Ben isn’t smart enough to love you, and you can’t stand another day, I’ll drive you back tomorrow myself.”

And Mal smiled at him, nodding slightly.

“Okay,” Jay said, and he started away.

“Wait,” Mal said, standing up, hurrying after him. “Jay, wait.”

He did, turning to face her. She took a deep breath, looking very close to crying again.

“Thank you,” she said, voice thick. “For understanding.”

“I get it Mal, I really do,” Jay said, sighing. “There’s a lot here for you, you know, but it’s your choice. There’s a lot there, too, I know.”

Mal smiled at him, and she hugged him. He hugged her back.

“Would you come back with me?” she asked, and when he pulled away he gave her a sad smile that had the answer in it, she nodded. “Yeah… Yeah, that makes sense.”

Jay walked her back to her and Evie’s room, before heading off to R.O.A.R. practice. He made Lonnie their new captain, not really sure if he had the standing to, but knowing it was the right thing to do. Coach would support him.

He thought about the ways boys and girls were treated in Auradon. Carlos asked Jane to the dance, finally. Jay wished he had had the chance to ask him, finally feeling like he might be confident enough to do it. Confident that if he loved Carlos then it was fine, just like Lonnie deserved the spot on the team, he deserved a chance at real love. He wouldn’t have that with a girl, he knew that. He’d always known that but now he was ready to accept that that was okay. Maybe he wouldn’t get to have it with Carlos, either, Jay thought, as they all took the limo to the boat together and Jane and Carlos were holding hands and grinning at each other. But. He’d work through that.

He did deserve it, though. 

-

Uma crashed the party, Mal and Ben shared true love’s kiss, things got all wet, and Evie told Ben about the kids they’d left behind on the isle. Everything felt abuzz with change. Jay felt jittery with it, seeing it in his friend’s smiles. Jay kind of hoped things would calm down and he’d get some normal, but he didn’t even know what normal was anymore. It seemed like his whole world was rocked every day, regardless of how hard he tried to keep it steady. Perhaps that was just what normal was for him now.

The party continued after Uma’s interruption, they all played in the water, laughing and reclaiming the night. They would worry about all the change and villains and the isle the next day.

Jay and Lonnie were standing on the upper decks, taking in the scenery of the event. Soaked and happy and exhausted. Lonnie sat on a railing, helping Jay put his hair back up after it had mostly fallen out of it’s bun.

“You should really get a trim,” she said. “You’ve got a lot of split ends.” Jay laughed.

“Not you, too, I’ve already got Evie on my case enough,” Jay said. “If I was gonna cut it I think I’d just cut it all off.”

Lonnie gave a mock horrified gasp. “Don’t even joke,” she said. She ended up just pulling his hair into a ponytail, unable to get the bun back herself.

Jay looked at her, she grinned right back. “That was crazy back on the isle, right?” he said.

“Oh my god,” Lonnie said. “I can’t stop thinking about it, the rush! I don’t think R.O.A.R. will be able to live up to that.” She laughed. 

“That was a real life or death situation, Lonnie,” Jay said, shaking his head.

“I know, wasn’t it great?” Lonnie said, eyes sparking with mischief that Jay just loved. “In all seriousness, I never thought I’d ever end up _going_ to the isle. It was different than I expected,” she confessed. “Seems weird you grew up there… I can’t imagine it.”

“Well, you only saw a little bit of it. I didn’t really spend that much of my time out by the docks, it’s not like I was a pirate,” he said. “And even if I was, I wouldn’t have been a Serpent Prep pirate.”

“I guess you guys even have cliques on the isle, huh,” Lonnie said. Jay shrugged.

“We were still teens,” he said. He looked back out to the main deck, seeing Carlos and Jane dance together. Carlos was grinning, looking so happy. Jay reminded himself that that was what mattered. Carlos was happy, he’d missed his chance to have the chance to be the one that would make Carlos happy, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Even if it did hurt, not knowing whether he’d been able to. It might be safer this way, though, to not know.

He glanced at Lonnie and saw she was smiling at him.

“Uh, hey, Lonnie… This isn’t a date, right?” he said.

Lonnie looked surprised at the question. “I would hope not, I wouldn’t be a very good date for you,” she said. Jay gave her a questioning look.

“I don’t mean like that,” he said, frowning. “You’re a cool girl Lonnie—I mean I’d be happy to date you, I just—“ 

“I’m gay, Jay,” Lonnie cut him off plainly.

Oh. Jay had never heard anyone say that. He knew, of course, what ‘gay’ meant, and he knew at that point that that’s what he was but. He’d never heard anyone just openly admit to being gay, he didn’t even know how he was supposed to react. Harry was the only boy he knew that he knew liked boys, and he liked Uma so. It was different. Probably.

“Me, too,” Jay said to Lonnie, because that’s what he wanted to say. “I’m gay.” He’d never said it before, even though he’d described it to Mal before, having fun with Harry but not with girls. It felt different and good to say it to someone who got it, someone who said it, too.

Lonnie looked a little surprised, but happy. “I knew it,” she said, grinning. “Not for sure, but I mean. I knew it.” Jay laughed, shaking his head.

“Sure you did,” he smiled at her. It felt weird but nice, an easy change to slip into.

“Is that cool over on the isle?” Lonnie asked.

“It’s not really… A thing? There’s not a lot of dating or anything, I didn’t know anyone who called themselves gay, but I didn’t either,” Jay said. “There’s like… I guess the same expectation that there is here, that boys will like girls and vice versa, but it doesn’t mean anything because you’re not really supposed to like anyone.” Jay couldn’t help but look over at Carlos, dancing with Jane. “It makes you weak.”

“Funny that Mal and Ben’s love literally just saved us all,” Lonnie said, laughing. Which didn’t seem accurate to Jay, but he didn’t say anything. 

“What about here?” Jay asked. “Being out about it, I mean. Obviously I’ve noticed that it’s supposed to be princes and princesses all the time, but.” Jay shrugged.

“I came out like… Two years ago, and it’s been like that, I guess. Friends and family have been largely supportive, classmates don’t seem to care but…” she frowned in thought. “I kind of feel like it’d be different if I didn’t have an older brother, or if I actually had a girlfriend, or if I even just asked girls to these kind of events. I play it safe a lot… I’ve been wanting to not do that, though, which is why I wanted to get on the R.O.A.R. team.”

Jay nodded. “Tired of not rocking the boat, right?” he said.

“Exactly!” She said. “I’ve gone to enough events with guy friends, no offense, and I’ve watched enough awful sword fighters represent this school just because they’re boys. I’m gonna rewrite the rules.”

“You’re so awesome, Lonnie, you know that, right?” Jay grinned.

“Of course,” Lonnie said with a devilish smile on her face. “You’ll help me, right?”

“I would like nothing better,” Jay said. “Come on, let’s dance.”

-

The morning after cotillion, Jay went straight to the girl’s room. They were up, early, which was kind of a surprise. Mal was never up early, but the two of them were sitting in the same bed, talking, when he’d let himself in.

“What’s up?” Mal asked, and Jay took a deep breath.

“I’m gay,” he announced.

Mal frowned. “I know that,” she said, looking a bit annoyed to have girl-talk or whatever be interrupted.

“I didn’t!” Evie said jumping up and giving Jay a hug. “Thank you for sharing that with us, Jay. I’m glad you can trust us.”

“Yeah, I just. Lonnie and I were talking about it last night and I wanted to tell you guys,” he said.

“Did you tell Carlos?” Mal asked, false innocence on her face.

Jay shrugged. “He’s still sleeping, I’ll tell him later.”

“I should be sleeping,” Mal said, lying back against her pillow with a groan.

“Yeah, what are you doing up this early?” Jay asked, deciding to completely crash their girl-talk by sitting on the bed.

“We’re just talking about yesterday… The isle and everything,” Evie said, sitting back down on the bed. “I actually haven’t slept yet… I guess I’m just a bit haunted by it all.” She gave Mal a guilty smile. “So I woke up Mal.”

“It’s fine,” Mal said, hearing the apology in Evie’s words. “There’s a lot to think about right now…”

“Why don’t we go grab breakfast and you can tell me what’s on your mind, E,” Jay said, patting her knee. “Give Mal some time to sleep, and then maybe you’ll be tired enough to sleep.”

“Please,” Mal groaned. “It’s sunday! What gets you up before noon on a sunday!” Jay laughed and Evie smiled at her friend.

“Sounds good,” Evie said, and she and Jay went to get breakfast in the dining hall, leaving Mal to rest.

They talked about how they felt about being back on the isle. Jay admitted to wanting to see his father, and Evie let out a sigh of relief, admitting she also wanted to run right to her mother’s castle and see her. Fear over the repercussions of their actions be damned, she missed her. Jay felt relieved to know he wasn’t alone in this.

“We really do have to stop ignoring our past,” Evie said. “I’mgoing to try and face it now.”

Jay smiled and nodded with her. “Me, too,” he said. “You’re right, there’s so many kids we left behind… I guess I’ve been obsessing over this idea that some of us were meant to be on the isle and some of us were meant to be in Auradon.” He shook his head. “But no one really deserves to be stuck on the isle, do they?”

Evie gave him a long look. “No one, you’re right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just cant stop posting. its a shorter one again but there’s lots in it i think. i truly wish we had seen more of mal and jay’s relationship in d2, it really would’ve been the ideal place to put focus on them... unfortunately we just got all that screen time wasted on chad. well, that’s the point of a missing scene fic, i guess, and i’m here to write it.
> 
> i actually wrote a specific missing scene from d2 of just mal and jay... i may post it as an extra at some point maybe. maybe just on my tumblr or smth, idk. i was just gonna paste it in like i actually did with another missing scene i had written (mal and jay the night before ben’s coronation), but its from mal’s pov and didn’t really add anything to jay’s narrative. 
> 
> anyway, its pride month and here’s canon gay icon jay descendant’s coming out scenes. how wonderfully fitting. there isn’t one with carlos, i didn’t write one. he just tells him over breakfast and carlos says ‘ok’ and has the internal struggle we already delved into in part 1. why am i typing so much down here!!! anyway i hope you enjoyed!


	8. Eight

Life was a bit weird after that, the VKs began to take part in talks about what to do about the ‘Isle Situation’ as it was being called. Ben insisted all four of them be involved, so the whole thing was really slow going, even after Dizzy got her formal invitation. There was a lot of pushback, just as there had been for the first four. Many people argued that they had been planning to take down the barrier and let loose all the villains on Auradon, so the next four probably would as well, and what if they couldn’t stop them this time?

Mal had to repeat again and again, “we stopped ourselves, and now we will be able to support any new VKs who come to Auradon!”

But negotiations were slow going, especially since the VKs still had school to worry about.

Carlos was rummaging through a box of papers he’d received in the mail with Jane, sitting on his bed. Jay was half working on his final paper for his Auradon Literature class. He hadn’t read the book.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Jane asked, frowning at a paper. Dude was on the bed with them, looking at her expectantly for treats.

“Anything marked ‘evil world history,’” Carlos said, now looking through a folder he’d pulled out. “There’s like, some history of badness and why it's wrong class that you guys have as a 11th year elective, so I think I should be able to use stuff from that.”

Jane nodded. “I don’t know why you are in such a rush to graduate, though,” she frowned. “I’ll miss you if you leave next year…”

“I’ll probably go to college in Auradon City, too,” Carlos said. “I won’t be far.” They smiled at each other, all lovey-dovey, and Jay scoffed. Carlos flipped him off and Jay laughed. “Work on your paper, Jay!” Carlos said. He was holding him hostage.

“I am, I am,” Jay said. “Jane’s right, though, I thought you loved school, why the hurry to leave?”

“I love school when it’s challenging,” Carlos said. “Redoing the 10th grade hasn’t been challenging, and I’m not looking forward to redoing 11th as well.”

“Technically you haven’t had your junior year yet, since you got pulled,” Jay said. “You should’ve just coasted this year instead of keeping up with it then you could just be a normal junior next year.”

“Carlos!” Jane said, suddenly, she looked at him with wide eyes, drawing both his and Jay’s attention. “You didn’t tell me your birthday was this thursday!”

“What?” Carlos said. Jane waved a paper at him. Carlos took it from her.

“It’s like your main file, or something, it says your birthday is-“

“May 25th,” Carlos said, a sort of awe on his face.

Jane stared at him. “Did you not know?” she asked.

Carlos shook his head. “I didn’t…” he said, he glanced at her. “My mom didn’t really celebrate it and there wasn’t really… Anyone else to know.” He looked back at the paper.

“How did you know how old you were?” Jane asked.

“I was five when I started school, I just kept counting from there based on the year,” Carlos said. “I put my birthday on Auradon Prep’s records as January first.”

“Oh,” Jane said. She looked at Jay. “Do you know your birthday?”

“Yeah, it’s in June,” Jay said, not really wanting to give her the exact date. He was still looking at Carlos as he stared at the paper. “Is it accurate?” He asked.

“I think so,” Carlos said. “My mom filled this out, I recognize her handwriting.”

“Wow,” Jane said, looking at the paper over his shoulder. She nodded to herself, looking suddenly determined.

Carlos left to get them snacks about an hour later, when Jane had switched to studying for a final, after shooting down Jay’s offer to go. 

“You’re not leaving this room until your paper is finished!” He’d said and Jay had just scowled as he left, Dude trailing behind him.

When Carlos was gone Jane stood up, though. “We have to throw a surprise party for Carlos,” she said. “I can’t believe he didn’t even know when his birthday was!”

“Carlos doesn’t really like parties…” Jay said. “But you’re right, we should do something.” Jane beamed. She sat next to him on his bed.

“We’ll make it a party he likes, just his best friends, lots of sweets, a huge chocolate cake! Oh, I’ll have to see about getting an order in at our favorite bakery!” Jane’s mind seemed to be running at a mile a minute. “We can have it in mine and Lonnie’s room!”

Jay nodded. “Sure, sounds cool,” he said. “Just me, you, Lonnie, Mal, Ben, Doug, and Evie, right?”

Jane nodded. “Very low key,” she said, before pausing in consideration. “You don’t think we should invite Chad and Audrey?”

“No, I don’t think we should,” Jay laughed. Carlos came back and stared at the two of them before frowning.

“I’m going to be the only one who even makes it to senior year if you guys don’t get serious,” he said. “Jay, work on that paper!”

“Okay, okay,” Jay said, throwing a pillow at Carlos while Jane giggled.

-

“Carlos really didn’t know when his birthday was?” Lonnie said, taking a piece of tape from Jay. They were hanging up red, white, and black streamers in her and Jane’s room while Jane was getting the cake. Mal and Evie were putting up a ‘happy birthday carlos’ banner while Ben and Doug were blowing up balloons.

“It’s not that weird,” Mal said. “Plenty of kids probably don’t know their birthday over there. Kids whose parents probably don’t remember either, so it wouldn’t even be on their school records…”

Mal’s birthday was in February, they had all gone ice skating to celebrate it. Jay had teased Mal the whole, calling her Princess Elsa all day because of her white-blonde hair at the time, singing ‘Do You Wanna Build a Snowman’ to her as he skated around her. He thought Mal had liked it, though, made it more like her birthdays on the isle, where he’d climb up onto the balcony of the bargain castle to sing happy birthday just to annoy her. She hated her birthday.

“That’s so sad,” Lonnie said. “Ben, when you make your next VK-related proclamation, make sure to give everyone a birthday, okay?”

Ben laughed. “Okay, Lonnie, I think we’re more focused on providing better food and medical services over there right now, though.”

“Birthdays are just as important,” Lonnie said, and Jay shook his head, laughing.

“That’s so Auradon of you,” Jay said. “There’s plenty of birthdays over there, I’d been to enough birthday bashes in the last couple years.”

“What about you, what did you do on your birthday?” Lonnie asked Jay.

“Nothing, usually,” he said. “I’m not really the throwing party type, too much work.” He gestured around the room. “My dad would usually say something… ‘Oh, it’s your birthday. Congratulations.’” Mal snorted at his impersonation. “Something like that, sometimes he’d pretend to care a bit more, maybe give me the day off of working the stall in the market, but other than that, it was during the summer so I’d usually just see Mal.” Jay smiled at her. “And she’d be just a little less mean to me.”

“Which makes no sense since you were always so mean to me when my birthday came around,” Mal said.

“You love it when people are mean, Mal,” Jay said. “It was my gift to you. And I never mentioned it being your birthday at school, so. That’s a gift right there.” They grinned at each other.

“What did you do on your birthday back on the isle, Evie?” Doug asked.

“I had a really awesome party when I turned six, and then after that I think my mom hated my birthday since it was the anniversary of us getting banished,” she sighed.

“Banished?” Lonnie asked.

“Mal’s mom banished us to our castle because my mom wouldn’t invite her to my party,” Evie rolled her eyes. “So my birthday wasn’t really very exciting after that. Maybe it would’ve been better this year, though…” Evie had a sad look on her face, and the Auradon kids just looked confused.

“That’s a lot,” Lonnie said.

“It’s old news, now,” Mal said, simply. “Evie came back to school eventually and we became friends, a happy ending.”

“Besides the part where you tried to curse me into a thousand year sleep!” Evie said, offended.

“Again, old news,” Mal said, “You need to raise your side of the banner higher.”

Evie glared at her and Jay laughed. The Auradon kids still seemed a little lost, but Jay didn’t think they’d ever be able to really bring them up to speed.

Jane arrived with the cake shortly after, beaming with excitement.

“I’m so excited, this is Carlos’s first birthday party! Do you think he’ll be surprised?” She asked.

“I mean, considering no one has mentioned his birthday since you first found it out, I think he must know something’s up,” Evie said logically. Lonnie was taping up the final streamer and Jay and Doug were throwing the balloons around the room ‘decoratively.’

The cake was a big chocolate cake covered in whipped cream frosting and strawberries. It was perfect, Jay thought.

“Okay, so Carlos is walking Dude right now, so I’m gonna call him and ask him if he’ll bring Dude over because I got him some new chew toys,” Jane said, clapping her hands together.

“You do have new chew toys for him then, right?” Mal asked. “Because I’m not going to listen to that dog complain all night long about being lied to.”

Jane stared at her. “Okay, so I’m not gonna say that—shoot. What should I say?”

“Why haven’t you fixed the talking dog situation yet?” Jay asked, interrupting.

“It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?” Mal said. “And it’ll wear off on its own, the truth gummy was only supposed to make Carlos tell the truth for the rest of the day.”

“It’s been weeks!” Jay complained, not noticing how Jane was beginning to freak out over what to say. “Do you know how unsettling it is to live with a talking dog? I don’t know how much longer I can take it.”

“Consider it payback for all the horrible birthdays,” Mal said, smirking.

“Guys, we should be helping Jane,” Ben said, walking over to her.

“I don’t know what to say!” Jane said.

“Just tell him to come over, is that so weird?” Jay said. “He’s your boyfriend.”

“He doesn’t just come to my room for no reason!” Jane said, looking panicked.

Jay wasn’t sure why this had to be so complicated. “He’s your boyfriend, isn’t that reason enough?”

“Don’t be gross, Jay,” Evie said, frowning.

“I don’t mean, uhg,” Jay said, his face growing hot. “Just—you spend time together!”

“Tell him you. need help with schoolwork!” Lonnie said. “I’m sure he’ll come running for that.”

“We were just doing schoolwork the other day, and I want him to bring Dude!” Jane said. “Dude has to be at his birthday party!”

“Just tell him to bring Dude,” Jay said.

Evie snorted. “Jay, you have absolutely no finesse.”

“He’s used to just showing up unannounced at the docks to get his boyfriend, no finesse involved,” Mal said, sitting on one of the beds.

“The docks?” Evie asked, brows raised, as Jay hissed, “Mal!”

Doug raised his hand. “Oh! Of course, uh, Jane! Go get him, you know he’s walking Dude, right? So if he already has him and you go get him in person and tell him you need help with schoolwork, it’ll just make more sense to bring Dude rather than stop off at his dorm and drop him off.”

“Tell him it’s an emergency,” Mal said. 

Ben nodded, adding, “a midnight deadline.”

“That’s a great idea,” Jane said, looking more relieved. “Thanks guys. I’ll text when we’re entering the hall, turn off the lights and hide, okay!” She left.

“Anyway, the docks?” Evie said, once the room had settled a bit. “Jay did you date a pirate?”

“I didn’t date anyone,” Jay said, glaring at Mal. “Mal has always called every boy I interact with my boyfriend.”

Mal shrugged. “Not wrong about this one, though.”

“Who was it?” Lonnie asked, sitting on the chair she’d just been standing on to tape up streamers. Jay crossed his arms.

“It doesn’t matter because he wasn’t my boyfriend,” Jay said. “We just hung out.”

“Sounds like isle code for a boyfriend,” Doug said, and Jay glared at him. He was a bit impressed, though, since when was Doug so brave?

“Exactly,” Evie said, clapping her hands. “Was it Gil? He’s cute, and he seems so nice.”

“It wasn’t Gil,” Mal said, grinning.

“Hey, Mal, I am kind of missing the fake Auradon you right now,” Jay said and Ben laughed, shaking his head.

“Let’s back off him, guys,” Ben said. “Whoever Jay was with, it’s not important, and it’s his business.” Jay opened his mouth to thank him but Ben cut him off. “It wasn’t Harry Hook, though, right?”

And Jay’s mouth snapped shut in a telling way. Mal laughed a particularly evil laugh very unbefitting of a lady of the court so Jay glared at her.

“Wait, the weird one with the eyeliner?” Lonnie asked, laughing, while Evie had a hand over her mouth, covering up a laugh of her own. Ben just looked shocked while 

Doug looked confused. “Like the son of Captain Hook?”

“Yes,” Jay bit out. Mal was still laughing when her phone buzzed.

“Oh shit, it’s Jane,” she said. “Jay, get the lights!”

Thankful for the distraction, Jay turned off the lights and everyone hid. 

“Thanks so much,” Jane was saying on the other side of the door. “I am just really stuck on these final revisions.”

“You know I’m always here for you,” Carlos said as the door opened. “Oh, is Lonnie out-“

He turned on the lights and everyone jumped out, yelling “surprise! Happy Birthday!”

Carlos looked stunned, staring at them all with wide eyes. “What?” he said, pausing to process what was going on. He looked from Jane, who was smiling with sparkling eyes, to the others who grinned at him, to the cake, to the decor, and then back to Jane. And he hugged her, pulling her close, dropping Dude’s leash.

“You did this for me?” he said.

“Of course!” Jane said, giggling. “It’s your birthday!”

Carlos pulled away and he was grinning so wide.

“I couldn’t have done it without Jay, though, he was my partner in crime here,” she said, gesturing to Jay. Jay felt his cheeks grow warm, he didn’t really think he had done that much. Just got everyone together and put up some streamers. But Carlos ran over to him and hugged him, too, and Jay couldn’t help but grin as he hugged him back.

“My own birthday party,” Carlos said, looking around the room as he stepped away from Jay. He looked young, then. “On my actual birthday…” He shook his head. “With all my actual friends.” And he was tearing up now, Jay realized. “Fuck, you guys didn’t have to do this.” Carlos said, just about crying now, wiping his eyes with the backs of his hands. Evie jumped up and hurried over to hug her friend.

“We wanted to! You’re worth celebrating, Carlos,” she said.

The night was nice, Carlos kept thanking them all over and over. They played monopoly because it was Carlos’s favorite game, even though none of the VKs had ever played one with all the pieces intact. They had never seen the $5 bills, or half of the pewter tokens. It was nice. No one mentioned Harry Hook again, which Jay was thankful for. Carlos ate too much cake, they drank lots of regular soda, and Carlos opened presents. A new jacket from Evie, with a matching one for Dude. Ben got him a box set of one of his favorite book series, which Carlos was audibly excited about. Jay got him a bag of Reese’s and some weird computer part Carlos had been mentioning needing that he’d found online. Jay didn’t know what it was. He got more books from Mal, Lonnie, and Jane, and Doug had gotten him some CD by a band they’d talked about before.

Carlos seemed to just glow through the night, his smiles never ending.

Doug and Ben left first, Ben reminding Mal that there was a committee meeting the next day at 10AM if she wanted to go. Mal begrudgingly was pulled away by Evie in the next hour, as she insisted that Mal would want to go to the meeting, and so she had to sleep. Jane and Carlos decided to take Dude for another walk, leaving Lonnie and Jay to clean up the room.

It was a really good night, Jay felt light and happy even if Lonnie had teased Jane and Carlos as they left, saying that they just ‘wanted to go kiss.’ It was a good night, Jay was happy he helped make it happen for Carlos.

“So,” Lonnie said as they worked on taking down the decorations and corralling the balloons into one section of the room. “Harry Hook?”

“Mal was just making fun of me earlier, honestly,” Jay said. “We really weren’t dating, we just had sex, mostly. He had feelings for someone else.”

Lonnie gave him a long look. “You sure? He seemed pretty mad at you back at the docks, I was actually wondering what was up with you guys.”

Jay frowned. “What do you mean am I sure?”

“I mean, sure maybe you didn’t think you were dating, but are you sure that’s how he felt…” Lonnie raised her brows at him.

Jay thought back to the last time they saw each other before he’d left. How upset Harry was, how he’d thrown his feelings for Carlos in his face… Jay had just thought maybe he was jealous, wanted a chance at a normal relationship with Uma… He thought about the time before that, when Harry had taken him on board their ship and asked him to stay with him.

“Oh,” Jay said, looking down at the balloon he held in his hands. “I guess… I don’t know… I never thought of it. He did have feelings for someone else, for Uma. He had told me so… I guess I didn’t think he might have feelings for me, too.”

“Did you like him?” Lonnie asked.

“I liked spending time with him,” Jay said truthfully. “But… There was someone else for me, too. I really only ever thought about him, so.”

Lonnie nodded. “Carlos, right?”

Jay looked at her in surprise. “What?”

“No one told me, I just… I can tell,” she said, guilty. “I’ve mooned over enough girls with boyfriends to know how it looks.”

Jay hesitated before he nodded. “I’m getting over it, though,” he lied. He wasn’t. Yet. He wanted to but he didn’t really know how and sometimes when Carlos was close to him… He didn’t want to.

Lonnie nodded like she saw through that, too. They continued cleaning the room and Jay asked what girls Lonnie had been crushing on. She admitted to having a crush on Audrey in her sophomore year that made Jay laugh and they debated which was worse: getting with Harry Hook or having an unrequited crush on Audrey.

When Jane and Carlos returned, looking happy and glowing, and it struck Jay that they probably had been kissing out there. He wrinkled his nose at that thought. Jay and Carlos wished the girls goodnight before heading back to their room. Carlos gave Lonnie and Jane one last hug, and Jane pulled Jay in for one to thank him for his help. Jay felt all hugged out but still held Carlos close to his side as they walked back to their room.

It wasn’t until they were back in their room, dressed in PJs and piling into their respective beds that Jay spoke.

“Oh, by the way—it got out that I used to sleep with Harry Hook, so. People might be talking about that,” Jay said.

“You what?” Carlos said, looking a shade horrified.

“Yeah,” Jay said, feeling more embarrassed than he expected. Carlos shook his head.

“That’s… Something else,” he said. “Were you guys like… Dating?”

“No, no,” Jay said. “At least I didn’t think so. Lonnie thinks he had feelings for me like that but… I didn’t.”

Carlos nodded at him. “Okay then.”

“Yeah,” Jay said, again. Carlos settled into bed, Dude next to him.

“Good night?” he said.

“Yeah, ‘night,” Jay said, burying himself in his blankets.

“Wait,” Carlos said, and Jay rolled over to face him, still wrapped in his cocoon of blankets. Carlos snorted at that which made Jay smile, the awkward energy in the room beginning to dissipate. “Thank you so much for tonight—I never imagined something like this could be my life,” Carlos said.

“You deserve it, man,” Jay said. “You’ve got a lot more birthday parties to come.”

Carlos smiled at him. “I just wanted to say that… You know,” he looked embarrassed now, looking away from Jay. “I love you, I appreciate everything you do for me.”

“Oh,” Jay said, face heating up. “I love you, too, C. You’re the one who’s always helping me.”

Carlos shrugged. “Maybe… I’m just really happy to have you in my life, Jay.”

“Me too,” Jay said. He hesitated before extracting himself from his bed and going over to Carlos’s, crawling in beside him and Dude. Carlos smiled at him and Jay pulled him close as he settled down beside him in bed. Carlos let out a soft sigh as he rested his head on Jay, and Jay squeezed his shoulder. They slept easily, and Jay wondered if this was wrong, if he was betraying Jane or taking advantage of Carlos but.

They were friends, this was how they always were. Maybe that was the part that hurt, though, that Jay could have so much of Carlos but not like that. They could literally fall asleep pressed up against each other in the same bed but it didn’t mean what Jay wanted it to mean. 

The “I love you” from Carlos wasn’t the same “I love you” as Jay’s.


	9. Nine

The end of the school year flew by quickly. A week after Carlos’s birthday, just before the end of the semester, he sat down by Jay at lunch with a grin on his face.

“Guess what,” he said to Jay.

“Hm?” Jay said, trying to study for his last exam of the year. Pre-calc, of course.

“Guessss,” Carlos whined, elbowing Jay in the ribs. Jay laughed, looking at him. Carlos looked almost giddy, all golden and sparkling like he was. Jay couldn’t help but smile right back at him.

“Come on, tell me,” Jay said, elbowing him back.

Carlos took a deep breath, putting on a very serious face. “I just got out of my last exam and had a meeting with Fairy Godmother and it’s official now—this Fall I will be attending Auradon Prep as a senior.”

“Congrats, Carlos!” Jay said, ruffling Carlos’s hair, as Carlos grinned again. He was really happy for his friend, and hoped this meant they’d have more classes together next year. “I knew you’d be able to do it.”

“Me, too,” Carlos said, nodding. “But it still feels—I don’t even know. At Dragon Hall I just kind of decided to skip a grade, and no one really cared. Here… Fairy Godmother looked so proud of me.” Carlos smiled a bit shy, now. “And I really had to work for it, you know? It feels good.”

Jay threw an arm around Carlos, squeezing him. “I’m proud of you,” he said. “I saw how hard you worked this last year, even with everything going on… I’m looking forward to relaxing all summer long.”

“I’m sure Ben will keep us busy helping out with the Isle Situation,” Carlos said.

“But we have Chad’s party out in Seaside to look forward to,” Jay said, grinning and Carlos shook his head.

“Don’t remind me,” he groaned and Jay laughed.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Evie arrived at their table, Jane by her side.

“Jane!” Carlos said, jumping up. “I want to tell you something,” and he dragged her away, Jay laughed after them.

“What’s up?” Evie asked again, sitting down. Carlos was telling Jane about what happened out of earshot, and Jane let out an excited yelp.

“I’m sure Carlos will tell you when he gets back,” Jay said, laughing. He was happy that Carlos was so excited about this, wanting to tell everyone separately. He looked over his shoulder and saw him and Jane hugging, and he told himself it was fine because Carlos was so happy.

When they returned to the table, Carlos excitedly told Evie the news. Evie jumped up and hugged him as well, congratulating him. The energy was high, and Jay felt glad to be ending what was definitely the most insane school year of his life on such a high note. Mal and Ben joined them at the table soon enough, with Lonnie tackling into Jay at another point, standing behind him with her arms around his neck, head resting on his and commenting on his studying. It was crazy to think that he’d started the year looking forward to enrichment class and worried over advanced evil schemes projects and was ending it sitting at a lunch table on a sunny lawn with his best friends, VKs and Auradon kids alike, trying to study so he could pass pre-calc. 

-

The VKs stayed on campus for the summer. A few other students did as well, staying for summer school or some other summer program. There was a summer tennis program Evie convinced them all to sign up for. Mal tried to get out of it, claiming she had too much to worry about helping Ben with the Isle Situation and keeping track of the Uma situation.

“I want us to do something together,” Evie pouted. “It’s only four weeks, twice a week.”

Mal was always weak to Evie’s pouts.

So they signed up for tennis, and Wednesday and Fridays became the two days out of the week when Mal would actually be up before noon. Evie had made them tennis outfits and she was really excited for the whole thing.

The first day of the program was hot, the kids all sat on the tennis court awaiting their instructor. It wasn’t a very full class, and Chad and Aziz were the few really familiar faces in the program that Jay saw. Chad was there for summer school reasons and Aziz was doing a summer college program with Auradon University and was staying at his Auradon Prep dorm for convenience reasons.

“It’s cheaper to dorm here,” Aziz had said when Jay had seen him at the dining hall the morning after move-out day.

“I’m pretty sure your parents are rich,” Jay had replied. “You’re a prince.”

Aziz had laughed. “Yeah, I guess,” he said. “It’s convenient, though. I really just didn’t want to have to move all my stuff.”

Which led to them all being in the same summer tennis program, where Carlos was drilling Aziz on what Auradon University was like, a bit away from the rest of the group. Apparently it was his first choice school. Jay was barely thinking about college, even though coach had told him he should be, since scouts would be looking at him next year. Jay was still having a hard time really seeing his future in Auradon, besides playing as much tourney as possible. He really couldn’t wait for the fall season to begin.

Aziz was telling Carlos about the labs, suggesting he go on a tour that fall, “since you’re a senior and all.”

Evie was tying up Mal’s hair in a neat ponytail after Mal had arrived with it down.

“Jay, you need to put up your hair, too,” she said. “This is tennis!” She had her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail that bounced every time she moved. Chad was staring at her a lot, and Jay made sure to glare at him every time.

“My hair’s already up,” Jay frowned, he had it up in his usual half up style he usually wore for sports. “Tell Carlos to put his up, it’s getting long.” Jay said that pointedly in Carlos’s direction, so he could hear him.

Carlos flipped Jay off without looking as Evie finished Mal’s hair and moved to Jay, who let her because he always did.

Carlos’s hair was getting long, he’d been talking about getting a haircut soon. It reached past his ears at this point. Jay thought it looked really good on him, especially in the morning before he styled it, when it was all curly and messy. Jay liked it a lot. He looked over and saw Carlos tucking a lock behind his ear as he looked at something on Aziz’s phone. Jay realized how close they were sitting, Aziz leaning into Carlos as he showed him something relating to the university.

“Do you ever think Aziz is flirting with Carlos?” Jay said quietly to Mal, who looked like she was about to fall asleep.

“What? No, I’ve never thought that, Jay,” Mal said with a snort. “Stop being jealous, isn’t that Jane’s job now?” 

Jay shot a glare at Mal.

“Stop moving,” Evie said, tugging on Jay’s hair.

“Ow!” Jay said.

“I said stop,” Evie said firmly. Jat sat still. “Anyway, if I didn’t know any better I might think he was flirting.”

“See, Mal? I’m not being anything but logical,” Jay said.

“I didn’t finish, I do know better, so I know he’s not,” Evie said.

Jay tried to look at Evie over his shoulder and she elbowed him in the shoulder. She was currently twisting his hair into a bun. “What do you know?” he asked.

“I just mean, Aziz doesn’t seem like the type to flirt with a guy with a girlfriend,” she said.

“Are you guys talking about how Aziz wants to bang Carlos?” Chad interrupted, sitting down next to Mal.

“Shhh!” Jay said, turning his head towards Chad, yanking his hair from Evie’s grasp.

“Great, now I have to start again!” Evie said, pulling his hair back together and finger combing it.

“What? I’m just here to say he does,” Chad said, quieter. “Look at him.”

“Don’t,” Evie warned. “I swear to god if you keep moving, Jay.”

Jay didn’t move.

“Is Aziz gay?” Mal asked, she was looking over at Aziz and Carlos, looking a bit bored.

“I don’t think so,” Chad said. “But Carlos is like… He’s the type of guy even straight guys are attracted to, you know? All small and vulnerable and sweet.”

“Not you, too,” Mal groaned, lying on her back.

“No, no,” Chad said. “Honestly Carlos kind of scares me… Which, actually, is also kind of hot…” He frowned and looked over at Carlos consideringly.

“Chad!” Jay said, glaring but making sure to not move his head. “Aren’t you and Audrey back together?”

“It’s summer break,” Chad said, as if that was supposed to mean something.

“This is so boring,” Mal groaned. “We get it you all want to sleep with Carlos.”

“Mal, it’s not like that,” Jay insisted.

“Yes it is,” Chad said, “look! He’s touching his leg!”

Jay turned his head quickly to look, and Evie let out a sigh. She’d just fastened the bun with a ponytail, and luckily it held. “Fine, it’s fine, you’re done,” shoving his shoulder.

Aziz was touching Carlos’s calf, and Carlos was just looking at him, nodding and saying something Jay couldn’t hear. Jay frowned.

“Hey!” he said, and Carlos and Aziz both looked over at him. “He has a _girlfriend_ , Aziz!”

Mal snorted, not looking up. “Smooth, Jay.”

“I know?” Aziz said, confused, and Carlos’s face was quickly going pink under his freckles. Jay gestured to Aziz’s hand on Carlos’s leg and Aziz looked down and laughed. “I was asking about his scar, idiot.”

Jay scoffed. “You don’t have to—“

“Good morning!” Came a greeting interrupting the group. It was Lonnie’s older brother, Li Shang Jr., an assistant coach at Auradon Prep during his gap year. “You all seem lively,” he said cheerfully as he entered the court, bags of supplies on his shoulders. He had a similar demeanor to Lonnie, Jay knew, he’d worked with him preparing to join the Swords and Shields team earlier in the spring. Jay didn’t realize he was instructing the tennis program. He walked over to where everyone was sitting, setting down the supplies. He clapped his hands together with a grin. “Welcome to Auradon Prep’s Summer Sports Program, for tennis!”

Evie clapped, excited.

“That’s the energy,” Shang said. “Let’s start with some warmups and stretching, practice our serves, and then we’ll do some games of mixed doubles to see where we’re at, skill-wise.”

The class was a small one, just the six of them and two cheerleaders who Jay vaguely recognized. Mal and Evie were the only non-athletes there, Jane had suggested they join cheerleading once and they’d both laughed at the suggestion. Even Evie couldn’t really see herself doing that, as preppy as she seemed compared to the other VKs. They were both plenty fit, though, keeping up with the others during warmups and stretching.

Jay was annoyed to see Aziz and Carlos were still working close together, and he was quickly getting the idea that maybe Carlos was annoyed with _him_ which didn’t make sense. Jay had been looking out for him when he’d called Aziz out.

They moved on to serving, Shang handing out tennis rackets and explaining the proper grip for serving. Something about holding it the way you’d hold an axe. Jay was looking forward to finally getting to hit something, so he was glad when, after he’d demonstrated a proper serve, Shang began to call them each up one by one to the edge of the court to attempt it.

When Jay went up he hit the tennis balls hard. Shang laughed. “Aggressive,” he said, clapping Jay on the back with one of those golden Auradon smiles, hand lingering there a moment. Jay tried to return the smile weakly.

When he sat back down next to Evie she gave him a look. “Speaking of flirting,” she said, and Jay instinctively looked over to Aziz and Carlos. Aziz was up serving now, though, Carlos was looking at his phone. “Not them, again,” Evie rolled her eyes. “Shang with you.”

“What?” Jay hissed, “No way.”

“Why not? He’s only a couple years older than us,” Evie shrugged. “And he’s handsome.”

“You’re crazy,” Jay said, face warming with embarrassment.

Carlos went up to serve, Aziz leaning in to whisper something to him as they passed. Carlos laughed. Jay forgot all about whatever Evie was saying, instead focusing his attention on glaring at Aziz who returned the look with an obviously fake friendly smile.

When it came time to actually start playing, Jay jumped up.

“Let’s do me and Mal against Aziz and Chad,” Jay insisted. Shang gave him an amused look and Mal gave an annoyed look at Jay.

“That sounds good as any match,” Shang said. “Does that sound okay to the rest of you?”

“Wait,” Aziz said, pushing himself off the ground. “I’ll do it, but I want Carlos instead of Chad.”

“Oh, I’m in,” Carlos said, accepting Aziz’s hand as he helped him up. He grinned over at Jay with a devilish smile, Jay frowned at him and he stuck out his tongue at him before turning back to Aziz.

“Come on, Mal,” Jay said, dragging her up.

“I really hate getting involved in your boy drama,” she grumbled, following Jay to the court. Evie cheered for them.

“Pretty sure I risked my life for yours just a few months ago,” Jay shot back and Mal laughed.

“Fine, fair.”

Shang demonstrated the parts of the court, the center line and stuff like that, and helped everyone find their position. Jay barely listened as he explained the scoring, instead glaring across the court at Aziz. Mal was rolling her eyes and shaking her head at him, but he ignored her too. They did a coin toss to decide who would serve first, Jay immediately called out ‘heads’. It landed tails. Jay just kind of felt like his day was rapidly deteriorating at this point. He might be dead by lunch at this rate.

Carlos served for him and Aziz, and the game started. It wasn’t that dramatic, Shang cut in a lot to explain rules, and to tell Jay to calm down just a little.

“It’s just practice, it doesn’t matter who wins,” Shang said to Jay with a chuckle after Jay swore loudly when he hit the ball out of bounds. Mal was laughing at him.

Evie cheered when either team got a point. Mal was actually pretty good, her and Jay fell easily into step with each other as they always had in a fight. It was good energy, and Jay was actually beginning to have fun, he even kind of liked learning the rule sets. He found himself getting lost in the familiar thrill of competitive sports.

They were easily tied in points after not too long, the four of them volleying for the winning point. Carlos was glowing and sweating and his grin was beginning to become distracting for Jay. The boy was more competitive than people often gave him credit for, you don’t become a genius without loving competition a certain amount.

Carlos got him and Aziz the win, which Jay should’ve seen coming. Aziz scooped him up in a hug, twirling Carlos around as Carlos laughed in victory. Jay felt like he was having an out of body experience. Mal clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Aziz is just fucking with you,” Mal said. “So calm down before even Carlos realizes how bad you’ve got it for him.”

Jay shot her a glare over his shoulder but Mal only gave him a look that said ‘I’m right and you know it.’ He sighed.

Shang called the remaining four students to take a turn at playing as well. Evie played on Chad’s team, against the cheerleaders. It was fun to watch, Jay thought there was a certain fire Evie had just from being from the isle, even if she’d spent so long holed up in that castle. She sent her volleys back with just a bit more energy than the other’s. She got the winning point for her team, cheering loudly. Chad high fived her, looking impressed. She flounced back over to Jay and Mal with a satisfied grin.

“This is fun, isn’t it?” she said to them, shaking Mal by her shoulders.

“Yeah, it’s kind of fun,” Mal said, always weak to Evie.

“I think we’re gonna have a good summer!” Evie said, and Jay shook her head but smiled at her, because it was Evie and if she said it was gonna be a good summer then it better be.

-

Lonnie called Jay just as the class ended.

“Is there something going on with you and Aziz?” she asked when he picked up the phone.

“What—Oh, uh, he’s just being an asshole today,” Jay said, feeling embarrassed that she already knew.

“No, I mean like _something_ something,” Lonnie said. “My brother just texted me asking.”

“Uh, absolutely not,” Jay said. “Not even if he was the last guy in Auradon.”

“That’s a bit harsh,” Lonnie laughed. Jay was heading to the locker room with the rest of the guys. “But okay, cool. I was gonna be mad if you suddenly had a boyfriend without telling me! Listen, you have to tell me first if you start dating someone.”

“Sure,” Jay laughed, he’d arrived at his locker and was pulling his shirt over his head while trying to keep his phone near his ear. “Listen, I’ll call you later, okay? You having a nice time at home?”

“Yeah, my dad’s teaching me some tourney moves so I can beat your ass in the fall,” Lonnie said.

“You don’t even like tourney,” Jay laughed.

“I could still take you down, though,” Lonnie basically sang.

“I’m hanging up now,” Jay said, clicking off his phone as Lonnie laughed.

“Hey, Jay.” Jay was pulling on a regular black tank top as Aziz leaned against the locker next to his. Jay frowned at him.

“What, Aziz?”

“I can’t do this for three weeks so lay off, okay?” Aziz said, arms crossed. “I’m not into guys and even if I was I wouldn’t be so shameless as to flirt with a guy the second his girlfriend leaves campus.” Aziz narrowed his eyes at Jay and Jay just stared at him. “I’m not sure if you’re just that concerned because Jane’s your friend or if you’re the one into Carlos,” and Jay broke eye contact them causing Aziz to laugh, “but you have to get it together, man.”

“Sure, whatever,” Jay said, grabbing his bag and shutting his locker.

Jay met with Mal and Evie outside the locker room, Carlos had already ran back to their dorms after Jane had called him.

“Thanks so much for signing up with me, Jay,” Evie said, hugging him when she saw him. “I’m really happy we’re all doing this, I really do think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.” She grinned up at him and Jay was glad they were doing this, too.

“You know I’m always down for team sports,” Jay said, even though he wasn’t sure if tennis counted as a team sport.

“I have to run, I’m meeting with Doug for lunch, but I’ll see you guys later!” Evie left, hair bouncing as she skipped off. Mal smiled after her.

“We’ve got to start getting more kids off the isle,” she said. “There’s so many people over there who would just thrive over here…”

Jay nodded. “Hopefully we can bring some more over this fall?” he said, giving Mal a questioning look. Mal shrugged.

“We’re trying, but the security footage of us breaking into the museum got leaked,” Mal sighed and Jay was surprised.

“What?” He hissed.

“Yeah,” Mal said, running her hand through her hair. It was still up in the ponytail Evie had put it in. “So now it’s all about what we almost did or whatever…” She sighed.

“Are we in trouble?” Jay asked.

“No, it’s fine, just a big mess for Ben to deal with,” Mal and Jay began walking back towards the dorms. “Hey—speaking of messes, what was with you today? That shit with Aziz and Carlos.”

Jay huffed. “I just didn’t like seeing someone take advantage of Carlos like that.”

“Oh shut up,” Mal said, elbowing him. “You were jealous, plain and simple. This whole woe is Jay, unrequited love schtick has got to end. You have to take care of this situation.”

“You don’t get it, Mal,” Jay said.

“Yes I do,” Mal said, exasperated. “I had to see Ben dance with _Uma_ just a few months ago.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “That’s completely different, Mal. You knew he loved you.”

Mal shook her head. “That’s not the point, the point is I did something about it.”

Jay stopped, frowning at her. What was she trying to suggest? She looked up at him.

“You have been pining over the kid since we were twelve, now you’re seventeen in _Auradon_ of all places and you’re still acting like a kid over it,” Mal said. “I’m saying you need to either get over him, and quick, or do something.”

Jay stared at her, and then something caught his eye over her shoulder. Shang was not far away, talking to the cheerleaders from class. He saw Jay and looked at him with a smile, waving. Jay thought about what Evie had said and the call from Lonnie. 

Huh. ‘Do something’.

“You’re right,” Jay said, interrupting Mal. He hadn’t realized she had started talking. “I’ve gotta go,” he brushed past her and made a beeline for Shang. Mal looked over her shoulder and groaned.

“That’s not what I meant, Jay!” she said, but he wasn’t listening.

Jay had put his moves on plenty of Auradon girls when he first arrived, picked plenty of pockets with a charming smile and a light touch before moving on to flirting just for appearances. Just because it’s what he knew how to do. He hadn’t dared to try anything with any of the golden Auradon boys, though. There wasn’t much to gain, it wasn’t like he flirted with many guys on the isle either. Also, Mal was right, he’d been obsessed with his own self pity over his Carlos situation. Now it was time to do something, and Shang was right there. Painfully golden but he was handsome and wore an open smile that looked like an opportunity.

So Jay said ‘hi,’ and the girls left and he did what he always did. Tilted his head to the side so his hair would fall just right over his shoulders, reached out to touch an arm, feather light but full of meaning. Shang beamed at him and Jay smiled in return.

Because this was Auradon, Shang asked him out on a date. Jay had been asked out on enough dates by enough girls to know how it worked. “Do you want to go out sometime?”

Where Jay usually would’ve told a girl that he was too busy to date, he smiled instead and said, “maybe, what did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking of going on a hike sometime this week, the weather is supposed to be really nice,” Shang said.

“Cool,” Jay said. “I think I’d like that.”

“Friday?” Shang asked, and just like that: it was a date.

-

“You’re really going on a date with Lonnie’s brother?” Carlos said when Friday came around and Jay was getting ready to go meet Shang. Things had been a little tense between him and Carlos that week, after their first tennis class. Carlos had confronted Jay and told him that he’d embarrassed him by calling out Aziz, and Jay had apologized, genuinely feeling bad. He hadn’t really thought of it like that. So they were doing better, but Carlos was clearly still annoyed with him over it.

“Yeah, why not? He’s hot and interested,” Jay said, shrugging as he pulled on a ripped up denim vest Evie had made for him. She’d embroidered a cobra on the back, it was pretty cool, they’d binged watched a bunch of netflix shows while she’d done it and it had been a pretty nice bonding thing for the two of them. 

“He’s old,” Carlos said, frowning.

“He’s only nineteen,” Jay said.

“Yeah, old,” Carlos said and Jay laughed, rolling his eyes.

“You only think that because you’re sixteen. I’m seventeen,” Jay said.

“Oh wow, I forgot you were so much older,” Carlos said sarcastically. “But isn’t it weird since he’s your best friend’s brother?”

“Kind of,” Jay confessed, looking at himself in the mirror, trying to decide what he should do with his hair. “He’s cool, though, ok?” He decided just to wear it down, grabbing a brush to run through it. “Why are you interrogating me over this?”

“I dunno, it’s just… Weird,” Carlos said.

Jay frowned. “Because he’s a guy?”

“No!” Carlos said, and his cheeks went pink. “No, of course not. Just… You never go on dates… It’s weird seeing you fuss over your looks for one and. Stuff.”

Jay shrugged. “Maybe I’m finally tired of third wheeling it and being the one who stays in his dorm alone, while you guys go out,” he said. Carlos nodded slowly. Jay double checked his hair in the mirror, running his fingers through it to make it fall perfectly over his shoulders before he said goodbye to Carlos and headed out to the edge of the hiking trails in the woods where he and Shang had agreed to meet. 

Shang brought a picnic with him. He told Jay he looked nice, because that’s what golden Auradon boys did on dates. Even if they were on dates with boys. It was kind of surreal, to be on a date with another boy like that. As they walked through the woods and Shang told him the names of trees, he actually felt kind of giddy at the whole situation. There was a stream that ran through the path at one point and Jay grabbed Shang’s hand as they walked over a fell tree that went over it. He didn’t let go on the other side, and Shang grinned at him.

They had lunch in a sun-dappled meadow and Jay felt overwhelmed as he watched Shang lay out a picnic blanket for them. He shone bright, blinding, and Jay felt a bit awe struck as he sat down. How did Evie and Mal manage being so close to these shining Auradon boys all the time? Jay thanked him as he brought out sandwiches and fruit and some sparkling water. Jay was a bit jarred at it, and he actually laughed.

Shang gave him a look. “Is it okay?” he asked.

“It’s just…” Jay looked at the spread. “So Auradon.”

Shang smiled, sitting down close beside Jay. “Dates were different on the isle, huh?”

“Yeah, me and my… Boyfriend, I guess, mostly met up in turf wars,” Jay said, grabbing a handful of blueberries. “On opposite sides, of course.”

Shang looked amused. “Yeah, Lonnie told me you used to date a pirate.”

“He was awful, he’d never have done something like this for me,” Jay said, gesturing to the picnic. Even though Harry might have, in another world.

“His loss,” Shang said. He smiled at Jay, shyly, reaching out to tuck Jay’s hair behind his ear. “It’s nice out here, right?”

“Yeah,” Jay said, heart rate picking up. He grabbed another handful of blueberries and looked around the clearing. It was all so green and bright. “It’s all so beautiful over here.” He glanced at Shang, who’s cheeks were pink and Jay realized how much of a line that was.

“Really beautiful,” Shang said, leaning into Jay. Jay took a deep breath, letting his eyes slide closed as Shang went in to kiss him, a hand reaching up to his hair. Jay exhaled as his lips brushed his. The kiss was soft and tentative, nothing like kissing Harry had been. Jay just followed Shang’s lead, kissing back light and teasing.

When Jay pulled back he looked at Shang, his cheeks were flushed and his lips were soft and pink.

“Was that okay?” Shang asked.

“Yeah,” Jay said, but he looked away. It _was_ okay, it just wasn’t… Right. It was just exactly what he’d done on the isle with Harry, looking for someone else to distract him from Carlos. Carlos… Jay looked around the clearing and thought of him, thought of how it would be if Carlos had been the one to take him there, thought of how it would be if he’d kissed Carlos there…

Jay let out a shaky sigh, that definitely wasn’t what you were supposed to think about on a date.

“Look, Shang… I’m sorry,” Jay said. “This was probably a bad idea.”

“Oh?” Shang said, and Jay couldn’t look at him.

“Yeah,” Jay said. “It’s not because of you or anything,” he glanced at Shang and saw he looked a bit disappointed but not angry. “I just… Don’t think I’m ready for this?”

Shang sighed and nodded. “Okay… Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Jay said, pushing his hair from his face and running his fingers through it. “Fuck,” he swore. Mal had told him to get over it, and yet here he was more in it than ever.

“Jay?” Shang asked, but Jay’s heart was racing now and he felt so stupid sitting there in that beautiful meadow with that beautiful boy on such a beautiful afternoon. He stood up, feeling about ready to burst with some sort of pent up energy, he began pacing through the clearing, trying to get his mind together. “Hey, Jay!” Jay stopped and stared at Shang. He looked concerned. Fuck.

“Sorry,” Jay said. “Just kind of freaking out over messing up my first real date.”

“It’s okay,” Shang said. “I’m sorry if I pushed you, if you’re not ready, that’s fine.” Jay nodded automatically. “Sit down, let’s eat, then we can head back, okay?” Jay nodded again and sat down.

They ate in silence, Shang giving Jay worried looks but Jay didn’t know what to say. He felt lost and awkward. The walk back was even worse, and when they got back to campus Jay didn’t even know what to say he felt so embarrassed.

“Hey,” Shang said, before Jay could leave. “I meant it when I said it was okay. I know… How it is. I like girls, too, and I’ve always felt so out of my depth when it’s come to guys… Like it’s scary, because I know people will think it’s a problem if I’m with one, but sometimes I just want to be with one.”

Jay nodded.

“I don’t really know how it’s like on the isle, but I know how weird it is here,” Shang sighed. “Like it’s okay, but not _too_ okay. I’ve seen how hard my sister has had it, seeing all her friends experience something so easily that she has to fight for… So I’m really sorry if I pressured you at all or went too fast or. Yeah. You’re a good guy, Jay, that’s why I wanted to take you out.” Shang leaned forward and kissed Jay on the cheek.

“Thanks,” Jay said, embarrassed. “I was the one who approached you, though, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t really being discreet over wanting you to,” Shang smirked and Jay laughed. “Maybe we’ll go out again one day?” He asked.

“Maybe,” Jay said, shrugging. “I don’t even know why I freaked out like that… But when I get it all figured out, maybe I’ll hit you up.” He grinned and Shang chuckled, shaking his head.

“Sure thing,” he said, and they went their separate ways. Jay felt a bit defeated, like he hadn’t solved any of his problems with this whole experiment except now he had first hand experience of a lovely Auradon date with a lovely Auradon boy and he didn’t know what to do with that. He touched his lips, kind of in awe.

Carlos was sitting on his bed when he returned to the dorm. Typing away on his laptop, he looked up at Jay in surprise, Dude curled up beside him. A familiar picture.

“I thought you’d be gone longer,” he said. “How was the date?”

“Kind of a disaster,” Jay confessed, taking off his vest and tossing it on his own bed. He sat down on Carlos’s though, close to him and looking over his shoulder. He was working on something Jay couldn’t really read, some type of coding thing. Jay leaned against Carlos, chin on his shoulder. He closed his eyes. “I don’t think we’ll have another one.”

“What happened?” Carlos asked, hand reaching up to comb his fingers through Jay’s hair. Jay let out a long breath.

“I just got overwhelmed, I guess. He kissed me and it was nice but then I freaked out on him a bit,” Jay said, he felt Carlos’s shoulder tense, but he didn’t know why. “Maybe I need to third wheel it a bit more before I’m ready to go out on my own.”

Carlos chuckled and went back to typing, relaxing a bit. Jay moved to lie down behind him, petting Dude. He was tired, and the sun streamed into the room, hitting them with a golden light. Jay stared up at Carlos, his wavy hair shining silver and gold, his skin warm, spotted, and soft-looking. Jay closed his eyes again, dozing off beside the boy, Dude curling up closer to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i finished the first draft of this today, it’s a bit more than 71k 😳 so ive started on part 3 which is exciting. i’ve never written anything this long it’s insane.


	10. Ten

All the VKs had a hard time sleeping, Jay knew this. Mal would be up late into the night with insomnia and then sleep late into the morning, cranky as ever. Evie would stay up all night often and nap in the afternoon, usually with the comfort of Mal or Doug nearby to keep her company. Jay had walked into the sewing studio more than once to see her sleeping on a couple of chairs pushed together while Doug worked on whatever the back end of their business was, shushing Jay and shooing him away. He’d seen her curled up by Mal’s side on the couches in the common room while Mal sketched in her books. Jay had never slept well, always on alert back in the shop on the isle, even the comfy beds of Auradon didn’t completely take that away. He fell asleep easily, but was ready to be up at the slightest noise, meaning he rarely had a full night’s sleep seamlessly.

Carlos had night terrors. He’d scream in his sleep sometimes, waking himself up. Dude would bark and Jay would go to him, crawling into bed beside Carlos and holding him tight until he stopped shaking. They were rarer and rarer, now, but just after their last adventure to the isle they’d hit their peak since they first arrived in Auradon, happening almost every night. Often so bad that Carlos couldn’t get back to sleep again, so him and Jay would just stay up talking quietly about nothing and everything.

Jay usually got up early with the sunrise, he liked to start his mornings with a run and once the birds were out and singing he couldn’t really sleep, their songs somehow more disturbing to him than the sounds of the isle. He’d roll out of bed a bit after dawn and get dressed in sweats and head out to the track field, most mornings.

One morning in the middle of June he saw Evie out there. Hair up in a ponytail, wearing a royal blue velour tracksuit, jogging. He laughed.

“Hey, Eves!” He said. She stopped jogging and looked at him. He jogged over to her. “You look like your mom,” he grinned.

Evie tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I said we couldn’t ignore where we came from, right? I could make you one, too, you can look _just_ like Jafar,” she chirped and they laughed. She looked well, if not completely exhausted. 

“Did you sleep?” Jay asked.

“A bit,” Evie confessed. “But I’ll just take a nap later! I have some dresses to work on, some girls want me to make them outfits for Chad’s party, but it’s not too much work.”

“You do way too much, Evie,” Jay said. “How are you a genius on top of being so nice all the time and running a business? It must be exhausting.”

“I’m not a genius,” Evie laughed. “Do you want to run with me?”

“Sure,” Jay said, glad for the company. The two of them ran side by side together, and Jay was impressed with how Evie kept up. He generally thought of her as the least athletic of the group, but she had good stamina. He didn’t even know how long she’d already been working out that morning.

When they were done they sat on the grass, Evie doing stretches and chastising Jay for not doing them as he lay on the grass, staring at the blue sky. “How are you the athlete here.”

“I’ll stretch later when I go to the gym,” Jay said, waving his hand. Evie shook her head.

“Have you heard any updates about bringing more VKs over in the fall?” she asked. “I’m trying not to bother Ben and Mal too much over it but… I really want Dizzy to start her freshman year here.”

Jay shrugged. “Besides the museum video leak setback, I haven’t heard anything. I’m sure Ben will call us all together soon enough to discuss it…”

“If we can only choose four again, who would you choose?” Evie asked, touching her toes. That had been brought up in their meetings. The very real prospect that they might only be able to bring a limited amount of kids over.

“I don’t think I want that on my shoulders,” Jay admitted.

“It makes sense for you and Mal to have the most say, you guys were the most social on the isle,” Evie said.

Jay thought about how upset Harry had been when he’d been chosen, how bitter he’d looked when they’d reunited that spring. The way he’d said Uma had been so pissed off over it.

“I don’t know… Maybe CJ Hook,” Jay said, slowly. “She’ll be a junior in the fall, I guess, and she could probably use some of this Auradon goodness over here. Although it doesn’t seem right to split up siblings like that, so maybe not her.” Evie nodded. 

“You're right,” she sighed.

“See, it’s too much pressure!” Jay said, shaking his head roughly.

“Yeah,” she said. “Let’s just… hope it doesn’t come down to that, then.”

“Do you think we’d be able to bring over just… Everyone? Like all the kids,” Jay said. “Like, I just don’t get it. Everyone knows it’s terrible over there, and everyone knows the kids haven’t done anything wrong. This shouldn’t be a hard argument to make.”

Evie sighed. “People still don’t trust us… Hey, let’s go get breakfast, okay?” Jay nodded slowly.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” he said. As they walked towards the dining hall he put an arm around Evie’s shoulders, holding her close. He wished he could do something to help her. He thought he should go straight to the isle and just grab Dizzy, bring her right there. That was a thought—Just doing the damn thing and getting more VKs themselves.

But the boat demanded not to be rocked, and they wanted to be sure to do this right. Doing it right meant securing their, and the other VK’s futures, Jay reminded himself. They had to do it this way.

They had to.

-

June went by easily, they finished their tennis course successfully and had a little good-bye party for Shang as he finished off his gap year. Jay thanked him for being a great assistant coach and helping him out with R.O.A.R., and gave him a kiss on his cheek. Shang had grinned at that, all golden, and told Jay not to be a stranger and call him sometime. Jay didn’t know if he’d ever take him up on that offer but he appreciated it.

Soon it was July, which meant Chad’s party. Doug, who was still on campus for a summer band program, had a car so they decided to drive out to Seaside all together. It was a full day road trip that they had to wake up early for, but it was kind of exciting. Mal was the only one of the VKs who had ever really been out of Auradon City, the other’s were giddy with excitement. 

“I want to spend all day on the beach,” Evie said, throwing her two large bags into the back of Doug’s beat up old minivan. “I made like eight swimsuits for the occasion.” Jay laughed. They were spending four days there besides Chad’s party, all having pitched in to rent a small house on the beach. Lonnie and Jane were set to meet them there, and it was all very Auradon in the way that made Evie’s eyes sparkle in awe.

“There’s some cool tide pools,” Ben said, “I remember you were really interested in the marine biology section of bio last year, Evie. You’ll like it.”

“Oh, awesome,” Evie said. “This is going to be the best—a real Auradon summer vacation!” She sighed. “I wish Dizzy was here already, she’d love this.”

“She’ll be here soon,” Ben said, and Jay pat her on the back. She smiled at them.

“Let’s go!” Mal said, walking up to them and pouting, she had a fleece blanket in her arm and a cranky expression on her face. Ben laughed, pulling his girlfriend close to his side with a kiss to her temple.

“Good morning, sunshine,” he said, grinning at her and she scowled at him.

“I wanna get on the road so I can sleep again,” she whined, wrapping her arms around Ben’s waist.

“Okay, everyone, let’s go before Mal goes full dragon on us,” Ben said, laughing when Mal hit him on the shoulder. They piled into the car, Jay insisting on shotgun so he could take over driving when Doug inevitably got tired of it enough to give in to his offer. Currently he was pretty set on driving the whole way because Jay ‘wasn’t on the insurance.’ Mal and Ben piled into the bench seat in the back, Mal immediately taking up two seats and leaning against Ben and burying into the fleece blanket. Ben smiled at her, putting an arm around her waist.

Evie sat behind Doug and Carlos sat beside her, with Dude’s travel kennel beside him on the ground in front of the sliding door. Evie leaned forward immediately and pulled the AUX cord towards herself, plugging it into her phone.

“I’ve made us a whole eight hour playlist,” she said cheerfully.

Mal groaned from the back.

“I told you to sleep, Mal,” Evie sang back to her friend and Jay laughed. 

The drive turned out nice. Evie made them stop a lot to take pictures, in complete awe of the changing scenery as they made their way through Auradon. She was just so enamored by the woodlands and sprawling meadows, as well as the small villages they went through. She said she just wanted to remember every moment of the trip.

They got lunch at a small, cozy restaurant early in the afternoon, having gone through most of their snacks. Carlos ran with Dude around the parking lot. They’d let him out a few times during Evie’s photo pit stops but Carlos thought he was getting restless and wanted to give him the chance to run around. Evie and Ben ordered food for them all while the rest of the group waited outside at a wooden picnic table. Jay sat on the table and watched Carlos and Dude with a smile. The sun was high in the sky and Carlos looked beautiful. Mal was seated on the bench, next to him, her head leaning against his thigh. She looked contemplative, watching Carlos and Dude with a bit of melancholy.

“Do you think we’re really gonna change things?” she asked, quiet.

“Of course we are,” Jay said, reaching down and ruffling her hair. It was really long now. She hadn’t straightened it that day so it was wavy and her overgrown bangs were kind of a mess and the purple had kind of faded into a distinct pink. She had said, earlier in the summer, that she wanted Dizzy to fix it up for her. They’d first thought she could come to Auradon over the summer before it had been pushed back to the fall.

Mal looked up at him with a smile that was filled with that worry she always carried with her those days.

Evie and Ben arrived with burgers and fries for everyone. Carlos sat next to Jay on the table, pressed close beside him, with Dude sitting on the bench by his feet, looking excited at the smell of the food. Carlos fed him a beef patty Ben had made sure to get before he ate his own food. Jay smiled at him.

They were back on the road soon enough, Doug relenting to Jay’s insistence that he take a break finally. Jay liked driving, there was a certain freedom that was nostalgic to him. He and Mal had taken a driving course together way earlier in the spring, where she had done absolutely awful and he’d done pretty good and got his license after. He was trying to save up from his monthly allowances to get his own car. He imagined being able to drive anywhere he wanted on weekends, do anything he felt like.

They got to the beach house late, after all the photo pit stops. The sun was setting and the world was washed in golden light.

It was nice seeing Jane and Lonnie again. Lonnie punched Jay in the shoulder before hugging him.

“That’s for not telling me you went on a date with my brother!” she’d said, but she laughed and hugged him. He’d missed her so much.

Jane seemed a bit awkward the whole day, Jay didn’t know what was up with her.

The evening was really nice. They got set up in their rooms before ordering chinese takeout for dinner. Jane and Carlos walked together to get it, up the beach, taking Dude with them. When they returned, Jane seemed as off as before, Jay made a mental note to ask her what was up. The whole gang gathered together in the living room and ate and laughed and it was warm and surreal and Jay didn’t know if he’d ever get used to it.

-

Chad’s parent’s summer house was huge. An old yet fancy looking stone mansion with its own private beach. The party had already started by the time they arrived, the party had actually started at 9PM but trying to leave the house on time with eight people ended up being absolutely impossible. Mal didn’t start getting ready until 8:45, they had to try and figure out where to fit everyone into Doug’s van, and then Carlos realized he forgot to take Dude out one last time before putting him in his kennel… It was a whole situation. So they arrived much closer to 10, and the house party was in full swing.

Chad greeted them all with excitement when the group entered the mansion which was somehow completely filled with pulsing music.

“Drinks are in the kitchen, down the hall. And upstairs is off limits, and please don’t break anything,” he said, cheerfully. “Really glad you could all make it, by the way.”

“Yeah, thanks for having us,” Ben said, cordial as ever.

“Let’s get drinks,” Mal said, dragging her boyfriend away by the arm in the direction Chad had pointed to, already looking irritated at the loud music and general party-like atmosphere and Jay snorted. 

“I think Mal’s got the right idea,” Lonnie said cheerfully, grabbing Jay’s hand and dragging him along after them. Evie and Doug had abandoned them, Evie having seen someone she wanted to talk to or something. Jane and Carlos had disappeared somewhere, as well.

“You sure there’s actually gonna be real drinks here, this time?” Jay said. “I think Mal will make someone take her back to the house if not.”

“Shut up,” Lonnie laughed. “I told you, this is, like, a real party!” They entered the kitchen, where Mal was mixing a clear liquor with some soda. Ben was giving her a skeptical but amused look, sipping from a plastic cup.

Lonnie insisted she mix something for Jay, saying that she’d created her own drink the summer before. It ended up being a bunch of random fruit juices, tonic water, and an excessive amount of tequila. She claimed it was a proper cocktail because she made it in a shaker, with ice. Jay insisted he mix something for her, as well, explaining to her what ‘bog water’ was as he did so.

“Just a little of everything,” he said. “So your parents don’t know you’ve taken their shit.”

“That’s not a cocktail,” Lonnie laughed.

Jay grabbed a jar of olives from the fridge, dropping one into it. “Now it is,” he grinned and Lonnie laughed, taking it graciously.

“To getting super sick tonight, I guess!” she raised her glass. She was sitting on the counter, looking tanned and happy. Jay really loved her.

Jay toasted with her and they both took big gulps of their way-too-strong drinks and Ben shook his head at them, good naturedly, of course. “You guys should really pace yourself.”

“Just soda for you in that cup, right?” Lonnie teased and Ben laughed.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” he said.

“My super responsible, super boring boyfriend,” Mal sang, resting her head on Ben’s shoulder and looking up at him with a gaze that was nothing short of adoring. Jay smiled at the two of them.

“Oh, to be straight and sickeningly in love,” Lonnie said as she threw an arm around Jay’s shoulder and leaned her head against his. “What do you say, Jay, should we try out heterosexuality?”

Jay looked at her and laughed, pushing her away. “Absolutely not, that’s disgusting,” he said and she grinned. 

They finished their drinks and found ciders in the fridge that were so nostalgic, Jay insisted they had to drink them next. They then went to go check out the rest of the party, leaving Mal and Ben to just enjoy each other’s company in the kitchen, neither seeming interested in mingling around the house with them.

Despite the underage drinking, the party was very much Auradon, no bodily harm going on anywhere, plenty of food that wasn’t expired and stale, the music much more pop-leaning than anything they listened to on the isle. It was fun, though. Jay and Lonnie found the dance floor in one room and danced for a while, Evie showed up at one point and they dragged her in as well. She was laughing and glowing, wearing a new dress she’d made just for the night made out of a silvery-blue fabric that made her dazzle under the colorful lights in the dancefloor room.

Jay went to get them refills, finding Ben and Mal giggling in the corner of the kitchen still. Her arms around his neck, grinning up at him as he told her she’d had too much to drink. She laughed and shook her head.

“Just because _one_ cider has got you fucked up doesn’t mean I can’t handle my drink,” she laughed. Jay ducked out just as she’d kissed him, chuckling to himself.

He saw some of the guys from the tourney team on his way back to Lonnie and Evie, stopping to talk to them for a bit. They were friendly as the tourney guys always were. He saw Carlos, standing with Jane, looking a bit awkward, but with a cider in his hand. They were talking. Jay was about to head over to them when one of Jane’s friends came up to them and dragged them away somewhere.

Jay finally made it back to Evie and Lonnie, who were sitting on a couch laughing and talking.

“Yay, drinks!” Lonnie said, voice high pitched. She was leaning against Evie, and had been touching her hair, but Jay decided to ignore this.

He sat with the girls, Evie was telling a story about a hideous dress she’d been commissioned, and Lonnie and Jay laughed when she accidentally let it slip who had commissioned it. Jay felt warm and good. Doug came over at some point to steal Evie away, wanting to show her something. When she was gone Lonnie let out a sigh.

“I have such a crush on Evie right now,” she said, pouting at Jay.

“Yeah?” Jay said, a bit amused.

“Yeah! She’s so good looking and talented,” Lonnie’s voice was a bit louder than usual and Jay considered maybe he shouldn’t have given her a drink that was just hard liquor to start with. “And nice. And hot.”

“She is,” Jay said. “Once I thought she and Carlos were gonna get together.”

“That’s crazy,” Lonnie laughed. She sighed dramatically, leaning against Jay now. “How are we the only gay kids in school but not like… Gay for each other.”

“There’s no way we’re the only gay kids in school,” Jay said.

“I’ve had a crush on nearly every girl in school and they all get boyfriends,” Lonnie groaned. “I am absolutely the only gay girl at Auradon prep.”

Jay pat Lonnie on the head. “You’ve had a crush on every girl at our school?” He said.

“Yeah, honestly it kind of makes it all easier.” Then she looked at him like she remembered something. “Uhg, I can’t believe you went on a date with my brother, by the way! And didn’t even tell me! It was so embarrassing when he got home, he, like, confessed it to me like it was some huge deal.” She rolled her eyes.

“Did you know he was bi?” Jay asked.

“Yeah,” Lonnie said. “Our parents don’t really know, though. He says he wants to keep it a non-issue.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m so tired of Auradon standards.”

Jay nodded.

“Did you guys kiss?” Lonnie asked. “He wouldn’t tell me.”

Jay felt his face warm up. “We did, then I freaked out on him.”

“I’ve never kissed a girl,” Lonnie said, voice dropping to an almost normal volume. “I’ve kissed a boy before, though.” She went to take a drink from her bottle of cider and Jay took it from her.

“I think you’ve had enough,” he said. “Let’s go outside, get some air.”

Lonnie pouted but agreed. Jay left both their drinks there, abandoned. He led her through the party to the back of the house where the large glass doors to the private beach were. It was much quieter out there. There was a bonfire surrounded by some kids but and plenty of nice beach chairs. Some people were out playing in the water.

“I wanna go play in the water,” Lonnie whined.

“No, no,” Jay laughed. “You’re gonna drink some water and sober up a bit. Then, maybe, we can go play in the water.”

“Fine, fine,” Lonnie said, sitting down on a beach chair and pulling out her phone. “Go get me some water.” Jay laughed, turning around to head away. And then they caught his eye.

Jane and Carlos were not far away, separate from the group of kids around the fire, sitting together in a beach chair. Jane in Carlos’s lap, his hand on her thigh, and they were. Kissing. Making out. Jay felt his heart drop and he felt frozen, staring at them. At Carlos’s hand. At Jane’s hands in his hair. The sound of the ocean seemed loud in his ears, waves crashing into each other. His drinks from earlier seemed to hit him all at once.

“You okay?” Evie startled him, he tore his gaze away from Jane and Carlos to see her standing there. She looked from him to where he’d been looking, at them, and back. “Jay…” She said, she reached out to touch his arm and he jerked away.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Fuck, I’m fine. It’s fine.”

He retreated back into the house, the image of Jane and Carlos together replaying over and over in his head, his heart rate picking up. Mal and Ben were gone when he got to the kitchen. Chad was in there with some of the guys from tourney, they were doing shots. Jay joined them, downing two in a row. The guys cheered, Chad clapping him on the back. Jay felt dizzy, but the burn was nice.

He got Lonnie her water, in his right mind enough to remember that. He froze as he went to go back outside. What if Jane and Carlos were still out there?

He realized Evie was in the doorway. “Jay,” she said, insistent. “We should talk.”

“Hey, can you bring this to Lonnie?” Jay said. Chad and the guys were trying to call him back for a third. Evie gave him a look that said she didn’t approve, but she took the glass and left the room. Jay returned to the guys. After the third shot of tequila the image from outside began to fade into a blur in his mind a bit. So he did a fourth.

The night began to blend together in a rush after that. He hung out with the guys, doing stupid stuff. They went out onto the beach eventually. Lonnie was there. The water was cold. Jay saw Carlos, at some point, he thinks. The whole evening was disjointed and confusing.

Then he was throwing up, in one of the nice bathrooms. Evie was sitting on the edge of a bathtub beside him, stroking his back and keeping his hair from his face.

“I’ve got this, Lonnie,” she was saying while Jay felt like he was retching up his entire digestive stystem. He vaguely heard a confirmation from Lonnie as she left.

When he finished, Evie handed him a plastic cup of water, telling him to rinse his mouth. He did as he was told, spitting it into the toilet, before chugging the rest of the water. Evie flushed the toilet for him before she sat on the ground next to him, leaning against the tub.

“Feeling any better?” she asked. Jay groaned, closing his eyes.

“Throat hurts,” he said. Evie nodded.

“Listen, let’s talk,” she said. Jay looked at her with a pained expression. His head was pounding, things were still pretty hazy. He didn’t want to talk.

“I don’t wanna,” he said.

“Yeah, well, after tonight we have to,” Evie said. “You’re in love with Carlos.”

Jay sighed. “Yeah,” he said. He closed his eyes, his head throbbing. “I am.”

Evie sighed. “For how long?”

Jay shrugged. “Years and years…” He laughed at himself, a bit.

“Jay… You can’t do this to yourself,” she said with a deep breath. “You can’t just wallow in it. I’d been wondering what was up with you, I didn’t realize it was this…”

“I’m fine,” Jay insisted, he rubbed his face. “I’m dealing with it.”

“Obviously, you’re not,” Evie said, shaking her head. “Listen I get it. I know what you’re going through.”

“No you don’t. You’re happy with Doug, a perfect Auradon couple,” he rolled his eyes even though the action made him feel like he might puke again. “I’m kind of tired of you and Mal always saying you get it when you don’t. You’re both straight and happy and uhg.” Jay rubbed his face and sighed.

Evie bit her lip. “You’re wrong about that, Jay. I do get it.”

Jay stared at her, frowning.

“I… Had some really strong feelings for Mal.”

“Oh,” Jay said. The room had stopped spinning so much but he was having a hard time processing what Evie was saying. “Mal?”

“Yeah,” Evie said. Her cheeks were very pink. “It wasn’t easy getting over them… When she un-spelled Ben with true love’s kiss at cotillion… That really hurt.” Evie laughed to herself. “But I held it together, because I knew that the most important thing was that Mal was happy. You need to understand that, Jay.”

Jay stared at Evie, she was giving him a leveled gaze. Firm but caring, and he could tell she was telling the truth. She really did get it.

“I would have loved it if Mal had loved me instead, I used to spend so much time just regretting not having the chance with her,” Evie said. “And sometimes I still do, but I’m happy with Doug now.”

Jay nodded slowly.

“Carlos is happy with Jane,” Evie said, and it hurt. “You’ll find someone to be happy with, Jay. But you can’t if you're too busy beating yourself up over someone who isn’t.” 

“But I love him, Evie. I love _him_ , I don’t want to be happy with anyone else,” Jay said, desperate.

“I know, I know,” Evie said, and she put an arm around Jay and pulled him close. He buried his face in her neck and let out a shuddering breath. He was still pretty drunk and he felt like he could cry. “I know,” Evie repeated, running a hand through his damp hair. “You’re gonna get through it, though, there’s someone out there for you.”

It wasn’t long before Evie decided it was time to go. Lonnie was outside the bathroom door, looking a bit worried. Jay assured her he was fine, and they went out to the car while Evie went off to find Doug and collect the others.

There was a nice breeze outside. Jay and Lonnie leaned against the car, standing next to each other.

“Was it like a party on the isle?” Lonnie asked.

“God, no,” Jay laughed, even though his head hurt and his ears were ringing. He put an arm around her. “You weren’t at those parties, so they sucked.”

Lonnie laughed and Jay smiled at her even though his head was spinning, he’d meant it.

Ben and Mal came down the driveway giggling, walking close next to each other, trailed by Jane and Carlos, who held hands and were smiling and laughing and. Yeah. Jay looked away.

The drive home was loud, Carlos leaned forward at one point and poked Jay in the shoulder.

“Hey, man, you okay? I heard you threw up?” he asked. Jay didn’t look at him as he replied with a strained laugh.

“Yeah, just got carried away with the alcohol,” he said. Carlos pat his shoulder now.

“Drink a lot of water, okay?” he said, and Jay gave in and glanced over his shoulder at Carlos. He was smiling all soft and concerned, with a bit of amusement in his expression as well. Jay smiled at him as well, hoping it didn’t look too pained, confused about how he’d ever be able to follow Evie’s advice.


	11. Eleven

Jay woke up early the morning after the party, hungover and nauseous but unable to sleep anymore. It was just after dawn, which was when he usually got up, so he dragged himself down to the kitchen of the beach house, throat sore and parched.

He was surprised to see Jane was sitting in the kitchen, drinking some orange juice and talking on the phone. She gave Jay a smile as he entered.

“Someone else is up now, mom, I’m gonna hang up,” she said into her phone. “Yeah, I love you, too. Yeah, I’m being safe, I promise. I miss you.” She hung up. “Hey, Jay!” she chirped as Jay got a glass and filled it with water for himself.

“‘Morning,” Jay said. Her voice was, frankly, grating, but Jay felt a bit relieved to not be alone. “You have fun at the party last night?”

He flinched at the way Jane blushed at the question, the memory of Carlos and her making out still somehow so clear in his mind. “Yeah, it was fun. Carlos doesn’t really like parties, though, huh? We mostly just sat out by the beach but… I think I kind of liked that, too!”

“Uh huh,” Jay said. He grabbed a bagel from a bag on the counter and sat at the table with Jane, eating it plain with his water. He felt awkward, not knowing what to say. Jane was fiddling with her phone, looking contemplative.

“Can I ask you something,” Jane said after a while, sounding self conscious.

“Of course,” Jay said, offering what he hoped was a comforting smile. Jane beamed at him before looking a bit shy and avoiding his gaze.

“Do you think…” Jane started before trailing off with a sigh. “I don’t know. Just—Am I a bad girlfriend?”

“What?” Jay said, surprised. “Of course not, why would you think that?”

“I don’t know… Carlos just seems kind of distant these days, and, uh,” Jane’s cheeks were very pink now. “My birthday was a few weeks ago and I told him about it but then he… Forgot. I thought he might just be waiting until we saw each other again to say something but. He hasn’t.”

“Oh, Jane, that’s horrible,” Jay said, and he reached out and touched her shoulder. He hadn’t known about any of this. “Carlos is… An idiot, honestly. Which isn’t an excuse, but it’s not your fault he forgot. He’s just dumb.”

Jane sighed, shrugging.

“Hey, I’ll talk to him, okay?” Jay said, and Jane looked at him in surprise.

“Will you?” she said, hopeful. “I know I should just talk to him myself, but it feels so awkward, like he doesn’t have to do anything for my birthday but I guess I just. Wish he did.”

“After you put on that whole party for him?” Jay said, and he shook his head. “Come on, Jane. You deserve the whole world from him.”

Jane smiled at him. “Thanks, Jay. You’re a really good friend, you know?”

Jay’s heart felt heavy at that. He wanted to be a good friend. He thought about everything Evie had said the night before, about letting go of Carlos and accepting that he was happy with Jane. Jay had thought he had accepted it, but he guessed that she really had clocked him—He wouldn’t be so upset at seeing Carlos with Jane if he had.

They went to the beach that day, planning on an afternoon of swimming and a beachside BBQ. It was shortly after they arrived, after they’d set up their beach towels and umbrellas and Ben and Lonnie had set up the grill, when Jay finally had a chance to talk to Carlos alone. Everyone else had run out to the water, but Carlos held back a bit, so Jay pulled him aside.

“Carlos, we gotta talk,” Jay said. Carlos nodded and followed him a ways down the beach, further away from the water. Jay saw Mal give them a curious glance, but he avoided her gaze.

“What’s up?” Carlos said, looking up at Jay with those soft brown eyes that made Jay’s heart race. His mind told him maybe getting over Carlos wasn’t the solution, maybe he wasn’t happy with Jane, maybe he could be happy with Jay. Jay pushed that line of thought from his mind. It wasn’t productive. 

Jay looked at the water, where their friends were. Jane was laughing and splashing around with Lonnie and Evie. Mal was holding onto Ben’s shoulders, as they waded in deeper, towards the others, laughing and saying something to him. Evie called out to them, waving them over. She was beaming, happy.

“Uh, earth to Jay?” Carlos said, waving a hand in front of Jay’s face. Oh yeah, Jay thought, Carlos. Jane. The whole point of this conversation.

“Jane really likes you,” Jay said, turning his attention back to Carlos.

“She’s my girlfriend, yeah,” Carlos said, looking kind of surprised that this was how their conversation was starting.

Jay nodded. “She’s serious about your relationship, C. You can’t play around with her, so you have to take it seriously, too, or let her go.”

Carlos frowned. “I am serious about her—what’s this about?”

“You forgot her birthday, man,” Jay said, and realization dawned on Carlos’s face.

“That was…”

“Weeks ago,” Jay confirmed. “And she’s been waiting for you to at least mention it.”

Carlos looked out to the beach as well, looking a bit distraught. “I forgot… I can’t believe I forgot.” He looked back at Jay. “I’m the worst boyfriend ever, Jane threw me that incredible party for my birthday and I just forgot about her’s?” He ran a hand through his hair.

“Yeah,” Jay said. “You really screwed up.”

“What am I gonna do?” Carlos said, frantic.

“You’re gonna tell and truth and apologize,” Jay said. “Then take her out tonight, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Okay,” Carlos said, he took a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m such an idiot…”

“Me neither,” Jay said, forcing some good natured humor in his voice. “You better make it up to her, okay. Jane really cares about you, and your relationship. She deserves someone who takes it as seriously as she does.”

Carlos nodded, looking out to the water.

Later, Mal sat down close next to Jay as they were eating. She leveled him with a curious gaze. “Saw you talking to Carlos earlier,” she said, quiet. “What was that about?”

“Nothing,” Jay said. “Just helping Jane with something… Actually, I think I’m done with the whole pining over Carlos thing.”

Mal frowned at him. “Without ever even telling him about it?” she said, and Jay was a bit surprised. Why would he do that?

“What do you mean?” he said.

“I mean, you should tell him how you feel,” Mal said plainly, as if it were so obvious.

“I don’t think so,” Jay laughed, a bit awkward, Mal couldn’t be serious. Mal sure did look completely serious, though.

“You’re just gonna let him go without even trying? Jay, come on.” Mal’s voice was quiet but insistent.

“Mal, he’s with Jane. They’re happy,” Jay said, incredulous. “What would I have to gain from telling him? It would ruin our friendship, and probably my friendship with Jane, too.” Mal shook her head with a scoff.

“Whatever, fine,” she said. She stood up and stomped away, Jay watched her go a bit baffled. What the hell was she on about, and why was she acting so irritated with him as if he’d done something wrong? He felt annoyed. Mal had no idea what she was talking about, she’d got the man of her dreams easily, and he was so openly in love with her even through all of their struggles. Their worst hurdles were just normal things, like the perils of growing up and being cursed by sea-witches. Everyday couple shit. 

She didn’t know what it was like to want someone you just couldn’t have, to have to deal with them truly being happy with someone else. He wanted to call after her, tell her she was spoiled and didn’t get it, but she was too far away now for him to do it without making a scene.

-

Their last night at the beach house, Jay couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned but sleep just refused to come to him. So he sat up in his bed and looked over to where Carlos was sound asleep, Dude curled up beside him. Dude raised his head when Jay sat up. He gave a little barked greeting. Carlos rolled over in his sleep and Dude jumped up, yawning before jumping off of Carlos’s bed and onto Jay’s. Jay chuckled.

“Hey, boy,” he whispered to the dog. He curled up beside Jay, tucking into himself, returning to sleep with a whine. Jay scratched him behind the ears, smiling.

“Jay?” Carlos said, sleepily. He was sitting up now, too, rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah, sorry, Dude abandoned you,” Jay said.

Carlos yawned, getting out of his bed and crawling into Jay’s. Because that was what they did as best friends. “Can’t sleep?”

“Yeah,” Jay said. “Just one of those nights.”

Carlos pet dude, his hand brushed against Jay’s and Jay bit his lip. “Even on vacation, huh?” Carlos said with an understanding nod.

The two sat in silence, Carlos adjusting his position to be a bit comfortable. He got under the blankets with Jay, leaned against him. Jay sighed, reaching up and running a hand through Carlos’s hair. It was pretty long by now, Carlos had been talking about getting a haircut earlier that day.

“Thanks again, by the way, for talking some sense into me about Jane,” Carlos said softly.

“Of course, man,” Jay said. “I did it for both of you guys. You’re my friends.”

Carlos looked up at Jay, big brown eyes and dark lashes. Gorgeous, gorgeous. Jay smiled at him, Carlos smiled back. Jay tried not to look at his lips.

“You’re a good friend, Jay. Really,” Carlos said. Jay nodded, looking away. He took a deep breath.

“Thanks, C,” He said. “I just… Want you to be happy, you know?”

That’s what was most important, he told himself. Exactly as Evie said. Jay closed his eyes. He thought of what Mal had said, about telling Carlos how he felt… But he couldn’t justify it. What was the best case scenario if he did? Carlos would love him back and leave Jane… Jay couldn’t do that to her. The worst case? Carlos would turn him down and things would turn awkward and they’d grow apart. He’d lose this, Carlos just being close to him.

Evie was right. Jay understood that now. She hadn’t put her friendship with Mal on the line, she hadn’t risked hurting Ben, she’d done the right thing. And it was Jay’s turn now to do the right thing for Carlos, for Jane, for everyone.

-

No new VKs arrived when school went back into session that fall. Not even Dizzy. There were other projects, of course, Carlos was working closely with Ben on a house for abandoned kids, Evie was working on setting up help with education so the kids would be more up to speed when they could come over to Auradon, and Jay and Mal were consulting a lot on stuff regarding medical care and the whole ‘gang issue’ over there. Jay didn’t really think the isle had a gang issue, he’d learned that ‘gang’ on the isle was just code for ‘we don’t know about friendship so lets make it violent.’ But the kids over there did need reliable medical supplies for when things did get a little too heavy on the violence.

Mal spent a lot of time worrying about Uma, still, Carlos worked hard at his studies, looking to get into a pretty exclusive biology program at ACU, Evie had Evies4Hearts to worry about on top of her coursework, and Jay let tourney become his whole life. It was a busy year so the VKs and co. really had to try hard to find time to spend together, but they managed. Carlos spent a lot of time studying with Jane in Evie’s design studio as she worked on dresses. Jay and Evie ran together almost every morning, which was nice, even though sometimes she looked so tired that he insisted they just sit down in the shade and she nap it out. She’d actually made him a tracksuit to match with her one, or to match with his dad, which she gave him for Christmas and made him laugh so hard he almost cried. Mal would sit in at a lot of tourney practices with Ben, who had officially left the team to focus on king stuff, and go over papers together as they cheered for Jay and Carlos as they trained. Jay was kind of surprised Carlos joined tourney again, he hadn’t really expected it since he had so much on his plate already. Carlos gave it as much as he usually did, though, which wasn’t a lot but it was something.

Coach had told Jay that this was Jay’s year and they couldn’t mess it up. He wanted Jay to go to Sherwood Forest University and play for their tourney team, it was a part of this whole plan the coach had for him. Apparently the Auradon Prep Knights didn’t get many star tourney players, and the coach thought this was his chance to have one of his students really go far. 

SFU was really far away, and when the coach had told Jay about it it seemed like a sign. He was gonna get out of there after graduation, finally be able to move on from Carlos, and things would fall into place as they should. Looking back on it, Jay felt like it was obvious why he never managed to get over Carlos, the boy was always right there. They had gone to school together and then lived together and played the same sports together… Time apart would do him well, he thought.

Mal hated it. “So you’re running away?” she’d said when he told her about the school.

“I’m not running away, I’m running _towards_ my future,” Jay said.

“You’re running away,” Mal had scoffed, slamming her locker shut and leaving him behind. She just didn’t get it.

Lonnie was also focusing on sports her senior year. She was working hard with a private coach on her sword fighting. She wanted to go directly to pro after high school. It was really inspiring, and made Jay work harder himself. They would spar against each other sometimes, which Jay always loved. Lonnie fought with such excitement and fire, it felt like home, but also something so Auradon and new. It was a good feeling.

One day they were sitting in the gym, exhausted from sparring.

“There’s no way you wont get snatched up by a pro team once the season starts,” Jay said.

“I don’t want just any team, though,” Lonnie said, sitting up. “I have to play for Northern Wei. They’re the best of the best of the best.”

Jay laughed. “Sure,” he said. “Didn’t you guys lose the championship to Charmington last year, though?”

“And I’m gonna win it back,” Lonnie said fiercely. “And then when you graduate college you can play tourney for Northern Wei as well, and then you guys can win the Tourney Bowl and we’ll be the most famous gay athletes in all of Auradon and you’ll get married to a handsome man who loves you and I’ll have the most gorgeous wife in all the lands and our lives will be perfect and Auradon will be forever changed by our influence.” Lonnie sighed dreamily and Jay shoved her shoulder with a chuckle.

“Well, first off, I’m gonna play for Sherwood Forest, because they’re the best of the best,” Jay said, and Lonnie stuck her tongue out at him.

“Don’t diss my home team,” she said.

“I didn’t! It’s just a fact,” Jay laughed. “And I’m not concerned with getting married, just the game.”

Lonnie hummed in consideration. “I like someone new,” she said.

“You always like someone new,” Jay replied.

“I know, I know. But it’s different this time… She actually might be interested,” Lonnie’s eyes sparkled.

“Oh?” Jay said.

“Yeah… It’s Arabella, she’s in my history class this year and we’ve been studying together…” Lonnie shrugged, coyly. “I don’t know. I just feel like there’s something there, and she’s actually really funny and smart and loves fashion which is so cute. She’s always trying out new styles, and she’s part mermaid which is like. Really insane and cool.”

Jay nodded along. “That’s awesome, Lonnie, you should make a move, then.”

“I don’t even know how,” Lonnie said. “I feel like I’m waiting for some sort of sign… Like something will happen and I’ll just know that she wants me to ask her out or something.” Jay laughed and shook his head.

“Trust me when I tell you this, Lonnie,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “The only sign you’ll get is the sign for when it’s too late and you missed your chance to even try.”

“Personal experience?” Lonnie said, her smile turning sympathetic. Jay nodded. “Okay, I’ll take you advice then… I’ll ask her out.” She took a deep breath and then grinned. “Me, asking a girl out… I can’t believe the day has come.” She laughed.

She did end up asking Arabella out the week after, and Arabella said yes. Jay couldn’t have been happier for this friend, even more so when their date had gone well and Lonnie showed up at Jay’s dorm the next morning buzzing with excitement over it. 

Senior year continued with little excitement. Jay focused on tourney and getting good enough grades to get into SFU with a decent scholarship. Evie made dresses upon dresses for their Senior Ball. Mal worked herself too hard until Jay insisted she take a weekend off just to lay around and not worry about sea witches and the isle. Carlos stayed late at the library working on his overloaded coursework.

Senior year hadn’t meant anything on the isle, just the last year before no one expected you to show up to school anymore. Jay remembered back when he’d been flirting with Harriet she’d sighed and said she’d miss having something to do, with a faraway look in her eye. Jay wondered how she was doing.

-

“Just four kids, huh,” Evie said, looking disappointed. The VKs were in Ben’s office. They were finally getting answers for when, how, and how many VKs were coming to Auradon.

“It’s the best we can do,” Ben said. “Between your mistakes when you guys got here, and Uma’s stunt at the end of last year… It’s the best I could get.”

“But you can just say we’re bringing more,” Carlos said, pointedly.

“We’d risk some sort of uprising from the people,” Mal said. She was sitting on Ben’s desk. “We have to do this right, guys.”

They nodded. “Fine, so who are we bringing?” Evie said.

“Well, we’ve gathered a lot of applications,” Ben said, holding up a thick stack of wrinkled papers. “But is there anyone that comes to mind?”

“Well, Dizzy of course, but she doesn’t count as one of the four, right?” Evie said and Ben gave her an apologetic smile.

“Unfortunately… She does,” he said. Evie groaned. “Listen, listen, I know this isn’t what we wanted. But once these four kids come over and adjust with your help the people will see that there is nothing to worry about, I’m sure we’ll bring more kids over by the start of the spring semester!”

“Okay, okay,” Evie said. “This just… Stinks.”

“So three more kids, then,” Carlos said. “And I guess we should be strategic about choosing, huh? If we want to make a good impression…”

“That feels so cold,” Evie said, but there wasn’t really anything to say against it and the others knew it. Silent. “But you’re right…”

“What about Mr. Smee’s twins?” Jay said. “They’re little, and cute.”

“I thought you didn’t want to split up siblings?” Evie said. “If we brought them and Sammy that would be all three of our other slots.”

“The twins are like twelve years old,” Jay said. “They’d have to count as just one person, right, Ben?”

Ben considered it, rifling through the papers. “Yeah, they actually filled out their application together,” he said. “That might work. There’s one for Sammy in here as well.”

“Perfect,” Evie said, nodding.

“Maybe someone… More bad?” Mal said, frowning. “Like, no one’s gonna think Dizzy or the Smee kids are threats, but they’ll probably argue that not everyone on the isle is like that and keep limiting us.”

Evie nodded. “Oh! I know, Facilier’s kid! Celia? One time she conned me out of all the cash I had on me tempting me with fortunes about a handsome prince.” She rolled her eyes. “She could definitely use some of Fairy Godmother’s goodness class.”

Ben searched through the applications again, drawing out Celia Facilier’s. “Perfect,” he said, holding the four applications. “So it’s decided. I’ll bring this to the committee and we’ll get it all confirmed and hopefully this summer we’ll bring them over.”

The group nodded, but the energy in the room was pretty low.

“I get it, guys,” Mal said. “This isn’t ideal, but it's good.”

“Yeah, it’s a good start,” Jay said, attempting to muster up some enthusiasm. Evie was nodding, despite the conflicted look on her face, and Carlos just kind of looked out of it mostly.

-

It was a friday night, a few weeks before their Senior Ball when just the VKs were holed up in Evie’s design studio. She was fitting them for their own suits and dresses. It was nice, just the four of them. Carlos was lying on the floor working on some complicated looking homework and Mal was sitting next to him, looking over his shoulder as Evie was working on Jay’s suit jacket, pinning the sides to perfectly fit him. A needle poked him in the side and he squirmed away.

“Ow,” he said, shooting her a lighthearted glare.

“Calm down,” Evie said. “I only keep poking you because you keep moving. You’re the worst to fit of all of you, you know that, right?”

Jay rolled his eyes. “I am only moving because you keep stabbing me!” he said. Evie poked him on purpose now and he slapped her hand away. She laughed.

“Fine, go sit down, I’m gonna work on Carlos now,” Evie said, shoving him off the stand. “Carlos is the perfect model.” Jay laughed as he stumbled off of the platform.

Carlos sighed as he pushed himself off the ground. “Practice makes perfect,” he mumbled. “Jay hasn’t had seasonal fittings since he was practically a baby.” Carlos rolled his eyes. Jay shrugged off the suit jacket Evie had been fitting him for as Carlos got on the platform.

“What do you mean?” Evie asked, putting Carlos’s jacket onto him.

“Pretty much every season my mom would declare it was time for a new wardrobe and spend weeks making new clothes for us,” Carlos said. “She’d have me standing perfectly still for hours on end pinning and re-pinning clothes onto me.”

“Huh,” Evie said. “That actually sounds pretty cool to me, your mom was a famous designer after all.”

“It wasn’t really,” Carlos said. “It was mostly boring and she wasn’t shy about stabbing me with a pin if I didn’t stand still enough.” Carlos wrinkled his nose.

Evie looked a bit embarrassed. “I guess you’re right…” she hesitated, smoothing the shoulders of his jacket. “Honestly, it’s silly but when I was little, whenever I was mad at my mom I’d look down the road and wish I lived at Hell Hall with Cruella and her… Well, dog, because I didn’t know you were a person, yet.” Carlos looked at her, incredulous. “I mean, really I just knew she was a fashion designer, and so I thought she must be very glamorous, and she would just spend all day designing clothes with me and never tell me I was worthless because I didn’t put on blush correctly or asked for seconds at dinner… We’d just live as a happy little family with our puppy.” Evie shook her head. “It was really stupid.”

“The only thing I ever wanted was for my mom to leave me alone, sometimes,” Carlos said. “I was kind of scared of your mom, too, though.”

“And there’s not much to envy about being locked in a decrepit old castle, huh?” Evie chuckled and Carlos nodded.

“So you never miss your mom, Carlos?” Mal asked, looking at him curiously.

Carlos thought for a moment. “Not really… I try not to think about her.”

Mal nodded, slow. “What about you, Evie? Do you miss the Evil Queen?”

“Yeah,” Evie said, working on the jacket. “I think my mom really did want what was best for me… Even if she went about it so awfully, sometimes. She did treat me like a princess at the end of the day, and always let me know that I was the fairest of them all, even if I wasn’t acting like it.”

They didn’t talk about their parents that often, it was just such a sore subject that even though they were the ones who were supposed to understand each other… It was hard. Jay didn’t think that their situations were as similar as other people thought, either. He definitely didn’t grow up in a castle being treated like a prince, nor was he a live-in servant for his father.

When he and Carlos walked back to their dorm later, he knocked their shoulders together.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Talking about my mom just gets me weird…” Carlos sighed, shaking his head. “Especially like… I don’t know, when we’re with Auradon kids it’s like, okay they don’t get it because they’re from Auradon and they don’t know what it's like on the isle. But with you guys it’s like… Weird when you don’t understand.”

Jay sighed. “It’s not that we don’t understand, it’s that you never talk about it in the first place,” he said.

“I do, you guys just don’t get it,” Carlos said, kicking some rocks. “You were there at the forbidden fortress… Cruella never loved me. I was nothing to her. She only ever wanted to use me.”

“I know how that feels,” Jay said, because he did. “I think all I ever was to my father was the work I could do for him… The way I was of use to him.”

Carlos was quiet.

“See? I told you, when you really talk about it, we’ll get it,” Jay said. Carlos shrugged. “We all had different experiences, but we still all went through the isle.”

“You were different, though,” Carlos said, looking up at Jay. “You were good at it.”

“Good at being bad, sure, but that doesn’t do me any good in the real world,” Jay grinned.

Carlos rolled his eyes. “You’re just all big and strong, you know? People didn’t mess with you. You used to mess with me, remember? Back when we were little?”

Jay felt his face warm up then. “Yeah,” Jay said. “Do you want me to apologize?”

“No,” Carlos sighed. “It was a long time ago, I don’t even really think about that time… See, I’m all weird now!”

Jay laughed. He put an arm around Carlos’s shoulder. “I like you weird,” he said. “It’s so real.”

Carlos shook him off and laughed, too. “Maybe you’re the weird one,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m realizing this fic is quickly outpacing changing the view in hits, but just a heads up: this is a sequel intended to be read after that one, even if it technically takes place before it, thus far. it’s gonna catch up soon enough n it will be confusing if u don’t read that one dkdbd


	12. Twelve

Jay got accepted into SFU. Lonnie, Carlos, Evie, Ben, Jane, Doug… They were all very happy for him. Jane had got him a cake from the same bakery she’d gotten Carlos’s birthday cake from the year earlier, with a decal of the school’s logo on it, for him. She gave it to him at lunch, it was all very sweet. Jay thought that Jane must be the kindest girl in all of Auradon, and for the first time he felt truly happy she was with Carlos. It was good he had someone so great with him, that she’d be there for him when Jay was gone.

Mal wasn’t so happy for him. She frowned at the cake, before shoving away from the table and stomping away. Jane looked after her, confused.

“Is she okay?” She asked, and Jay just sighed and shrugged, thanking Jane for the cake again.

Jay thought Mal was the one who had something to get over, not him. He was doing fine with regards to Carlos, he wasn’t moping, he was focusing on being productive and focusing on his future. He was focusing on being happy for Carlos in his relationship. He was doing the right thing.

He asked Evie about it the next morning when they ran together. 

“Why is Mal so obsessed with my crush on Carlos?” he asked in the middle of their second lap. “She’s throwing a fit over me going to SFU because she thinks I’m doing it to avoid my feelings for him.”

“What?” Evie said, looking a bit confused. She stopped running.

Jay stopped as well, a few paces ahead. He frowned back at her. “She wants me to tell him how I feel,” Jay said. “She told me at the beach house over the summer… She thinks I’m making a mistake by getting over him. Then ever since I decided to go to SFU she’s said I’m ‘running away’ and bitches if anyone dares to mention it. You saw her at lunch yesterday.”

Evie gave him a skeptical look. “I don’t think it’s that, Jay.”

“What do you mean?” Jay asked, crossing his arms.

Evie pulled on her ponytail, considering. “Well, if Mal won’t actually tell you her real feelings and you can’t figure it out yourself, I guess I have to intervene…” she said, seemingly partway to herself.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jay said.

“Come on,” Evie scoffed, a bit of an amused smile playing on her lips. “Mal isn’t upset because you won’t tell Carlos how you feel or whatever, she’s upset because you’re leaving and she doesn’t know how to deal with that. Even two years in Auradon can’t teach Mal how to articulate her feelings productively all the time, especially not towards you.”

Jay stared at Evie. That did seem like something Mal would do… But it seemed like something the old Mal would do, the isle-Mal. Maybe Evie was right, though, she was still kind of the old Mal with him, though.

“You should talk to her about it,” Evie said. “Or try to, at least.”

They continued running then, and Jay considered what Evie had said. It was weird, when he thought of it, that he and Mal were going to be apart now. He’d been so focused on leaving Carlos that he hadn’t thought about how it would be to leave Mal. They’d grown up so close to each other, they’d once thought they were siblings. Mal had been grounded for a whole week after she’d asked her mom if Jafar was her father. It had been pretty funny at the time, but even then Jay still showed up at her window every night, unable to stay away from her. The two had always been together.

That night Jay was throwing rocks at Mal’s window again, like he had the night before they chose good. It just felt right. Mal was actually in there that time, opening the window and scowling out at him. Her hair looked almost black in the darkness. She’d recently dyed and cut it herself, a dark blue-ish purple color that fell in waves around her face. It was frizzy and messy right then and made Jay smile.

“Jay?” she called. “What are you doing here?”

“I want to talk,” Jay said. “Come out!”

Mal groaned, and Jay grinned. It was painfully nostalgic.

He waited outside for Mal to arrive. It was mid-april but the weather still had a bit of chill to it in Auradon City. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself.

Mal stepped outside, wearing her pajamas and a leather jacket and boots. It was a funny look, Jay wished he could take a picture right then.

“Come on,” Jay said, taking her hand and leading her across the campus. It was deserted as it usually was at night, the good kids of Auradon tucked nice and warm into their beds. Jay led Mal to a little gazebo on the lawn, motioning for her to climb the trellis. Mal smiled and shook her head with a little laugh but did so. He climbed after her, and they sat on top of the structure. It had a good view of the ocean, and across it, the isle. Mal pulled her knees close to her chest as she looked out at it.

“Evie’s buying a castle, did you hear? She said she’s gonna house all the new VKs there over the summer, so they can arrive as early as possible,” Mal said.

“That sounds like Evie,” Jay said, smiling.

“Yeah, she’s too perfect sometimes,” Mal laughed. Jay wondered if there was another life where she and Evie might be together… He pushed that thought aside. Unproductive.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Mal asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Honestly, your attitude lately,” Jay said and Mal frowned at him. “Over me going to Sherwood Forest.”

Mal sighed, looking away and letting her hair fall over her face, obscuring it. “I just don’t like that you’re running away from this, Jay,” she said, clipped.

“That’s not it and you know it,” Jay said, nudging her with his elbow. “This isn’t about Carlos.”

“What makes you say that?” Mal said.

“Evie told me,” Jay said, and Mal looked at him in surprise and then laughed.

“Yeah, I guess that tracks, she’s pretty conspiratorial when she wants to be,” she said. “So what did she say?”

“You’re just gonna miss me,” Jay said, and Mal bit her lip, pushing her hair back behind her ear, revealing a conflicted expression.

“It’s not just that,” she insisted. “It’s like… Back then I always thought things were gonna be the same forever, you know? It was gonna be me and you and we’d graduate from Dragon Hall and then terrorize the isle as adults and be badass and evil and just the two of us… And of course now I know that’s like. Horrible. Ahorrible future and it’s great that we’re not doing that, that you can play your sports and I can help Auradon and we have all this happiness and fulfillment and shit but… I still miss it? It being just us.”

Jay bumped her shoulder with his. “Come on, Mal... You’re saying you miss when we didn’t have Carlos and Evie? When you didn’t have Ben? When you didn’t have this whole bright new future in front of you?”

Mal sighed. “I guess not,” she said, her voice becoming small and watery. “But right now it just feels like… I have to lose you to have that. I don’t know it’s worth it.” She scrubbed at her face with her hands, frustration and embarrassment in her voice.

“I’m still here,” Jay said, looking down at Mal. “You’re not losing me.”

“You’re leaving, Jay,” Mal said, shooting him a glare. “You’re gonna go off and find a hot college boyfriend to obsess over and a new best friend and forget about us.”

“You don’t really think that’s gonna happen, right?” he asked, and Mal shrugged, deflating a bit.

“I dunno… It’s hard when it comes to you, Jay,” she chuckled to herself, shaking her head roughly. “It’s probably why I used to get all in your business over boys, I don’t want anyone to take you away from me. You’re mine, my best friend, even before we could say it.”

Jay smirked. “Maybe some distance will do us good, then.”

Mal smiled a small, sad smile. “I don’t want it, though.”

“Mal, I will always be loyal to you first.”

Mal’s smile became a little more genuine. “You mean it?”

“Of course,” Jay said. He put an arm around her. “We’re a gang, me and you. Just the two of us, and we could take on a hundred pirates without any help!”

She laughed now. “I love you, Jay.”

Jay smiled at her, feeling his full and co to the warm. “I love you, too.” He kissed her on top of her head, because it felt right, and she giggled. Very Auradon. Somehow even the two of them were so full of that golden Auradon light now.

-

They all graduated. The ceremony was surreal. There wasn’t a ceremony back on the isle, only a couple kids had even graduated from Dragon Hall, most kids just stopped going in the middle of their senior year. At Auradon Prep, though, graduation was a really big deal. Everyone’s parents and siblings came. It was the first time Jay saw Shang since the summer before. It was a little awkward, Jay waved at him when he saw him but kind of ducked away quickly. Lonnie laughed at him when she saw that he was avoiding him.

Carlos was their class Valedictorian, which was pretty crazy. He hadn’t expected it, when he got the email weeks before he’d been shocked. Jay was surprised, he’d thought Carlos would be keeping a close eye on class rankings. Back at Dragon Hall Carlos had always been obsessed with being the best at school. He hadn’t known, though, and was overwhelmed at the prospect of making a speech, and even went to Fairy Godmother to ask if there was a mistake—he hadn’t even gone there for all four years. Fairy Godmother said he’d had the highest GPA, that he’d earned it, and she trusted him to represent the class well.

So they all wore their blue caps and gowns, sitting on the lawn in rows of folding chairs. They were sat by name, so Jay, Mal, and Evie were all in the back next to each other, their last names a black X they were told to write on their papers back at their arrival to Auradon if they didn’t have one. Jay figured his father must have a last name, but he just didn’t know it, the same with Evie for her mom. Mal didn’t have one, though. Just a first and middle name, however that worked. She refused to put ‘Bertha’ down as her last name when Jay suggested it, elbowing him in the rib for even mentioning it.

Carlos sat far away, on the stage, next to King Ben. Jay could tell even from the distance that he was nervous, looking at the note cards in front of him. He saw him look up and scan the crowd of graduates. He caught Jay’s eye and Jay grinned at him, waving. Carlos smiled back, and Jay was relieved to see his shoulders relax a little.

Fairy Godmother began the ceremony with a statement about how proud she was of every single student for their hard work that year. Looking back, all Jay could think about was how normal the year had been. A perfectly normal Auradon year, at least Despite Mal’s fears, Uma hadn’t made a single appearance, and they hadn’t had any isle-related misadventures. If it weren’t for the work they did with Ben regarding the Isle Situation, you’d look back on their year and think they were any four Auradon kids with Auradon parents and Auradon upbringings.

There was probably something to that.

Ben gave his speech next. He was grateful to have spent four years with everyone there, he reflected on his freshman year, and how nervous he was as the prince of Auradon. He thanked them all for shaping him into the King he was then, telling them they were all a part of him and how he planned to lead them going forward.

“Of course, it hasn’t been four years with all of you,” Ben said. “Less than two years ago now we welcomed in our first ever villain kids to Auradon Prep. The children of Jafar, Maleficent, the Evil Queen, and Cruella de Vil; they taught me a lot, and they learned a lot, as well. I think we can all agree that it has been an honor to study with and get to know them all.” He gestured back at Carlos. “With that, I’d like to introduce to the podium, your class Valedictorian: Carlos de Vil!”

Carlos stepped up to the podium, cheeks pink and looking nervous. He smiled, though, and it was genuine and bright and Jay couldn’t help but cheer, hearing Evie and Mal do the same beside him.

“Thanks,” Carlos said, laughing a little. “Um, hi. I’m Carlos. Thank you to all the family and friends for attending today’s commencement,” he said this awkwardly, clearly knowing that everyone knew he didn’t have anyone there for him except his family in his class. “Um. I really like school.” Their class laughed. “I mean, I always have, and we didn’t really have a Valedictorian at my old school but I always knew I’d be it if we did. I worked hard, and was proud to be top of my class. I'd pushed myself forward a year, too, when I realized it was all a bit too easy for me. I just… love learning. I used to arrive at the wharf, that’s where the garbage barges would bring in all your trash for us, extra early so I could grab any books that had come in. And I’d hole myself up in my room and just read and read all night, I used a candle for a long time before I made my own flashlight from a bunch of junk I’d got from the wharf, figuring it out from an instruction pamphlet someone here had tossed and I’d got my hands on.

“Education was like an escape for me, a way to prove to myself I had worth. If I got the best grade in Weird Science then that meant I had _something_. And then I came here, with my friends, and school was somehow completely different yet exactly the same. You guys wouldn’t just let me put myself up a grade level, and at first I thought that was unfair, but then when I had to fight for it, work hard for it… I kind of got it. When Fairy Godmother told me I’d be a senior this year I didn’t just feel like I had worth, I felt like she saw me, which I guess was what I was always looking for from my education. When you guys let me on the tourney team, and Ben helped me get better and stronger at it, and I actually got to help us get that winning goal my first year here—I felt so seen and real and like I was deserving of all of this. Of everything good you have here in Auradon, and so I wanted to be good, too.

“And I guess I want everyone to feel like that. To feel seen, like you deserve all the wonderful things here. You made it to graduation, you had to work hard for that and now you’re here! We all deserve the best future possible, so let’s keep working hard and being good to make that happen.” Carlos beamed at himself, looking satisfied.

There was applause, and then it was time for everyone to walk the stage and receive their diplomas, shaking hands with Fairy Godmother and getting their pictures taken. Jay couldn’t help but grin at Carlos as he walked across the stage, shooting him a thumbs up.

After they sat on the lawn, while others were taking pictures with their families. Evie was taking selfies of all of them for her instagram. “Don’t be so mopey,” she said, pinching Carlos’s cheek. “We’re a family.”

Mal was dragged away to take pictures with Ben and his family, and Evie was dragged away to take pictures with Doug and his. Carlos and Jay sat next to each other in the grass, feeling a bit awkward now.

“So that’s it, huh,” Carlos said. “We’re just… Done at Auradon prep.”

“Yeah,” Jay said. “It’s kind of crazy.”

“It’s completely insane,” Carlos corrected. Jay nodded. He kind of couldn’t comprehend it. They were just out of school now… Of course they had college starting in the fall, but that would be all different. Evie was doing a two-year fashion design course at an art school just outside Auradon City, deciding it was worth it after taking a sewing elective the year before at Auradon Prep. Ben was going to Auradon University to study… Something, Jay wasn’t sure. Carlos had got into the biology program he wanted to, there, as well. After the spring season Lonnie had got a spot on the Northern Wei professional R.O.A.R. team, so she was going straight to pro like she wanted. Jay couldn’t be prouder of everyone if he tried. He was proud of himself, too. Coach had told him that he was his first student of his to get scouted onto Sherwood Forest University's tourney team, which was basically a sure-shot to getting on the region’s NTL team, and he really believed Jay could do it.

Carlos pressed close to Jay, and Jay put an arm around him. “It kind of felt like we’d just be here forever, right?”

Carlos nodded. “Kind of sucks the new VKs won't have us here, huh?” Carlos said.

“At least Mal’s planning on being heavily involved, skipping out on college and everything.”

Carlos shook his head. “I still can’t believe she’s just not going to college…”

“She still might,” Jay said. “Just not this year.” Carlos shrugged. “Plus, let’s be realistic, Ben is definitely going to propose soon enough and they’ll get married and she’ll be queen. That’ll keep her busy enough.”

“You really think they’ll get married?” Carlos asked, skeptical. “They’re so young.”

Jay heaved a fake sigh, patting Carlos on the back. “You only think that because you’re 16–“

“Oh, can it,” Carlos laughed, shoving Jay and Jay shoved him back. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful day.

Jane came by soon enough and took Carlos away, saying her mom wanted a picture of the three of them. She grinned at Jay and told him congratulations as well. Jay sat alone, then. He saw Aziz across the lawn, with his parents. Jay had met them properly at Family Day the fall before. Aziz had dragged him over to them, embarrassed, and Jay got the idea that Jasmine and Aladdin had insisted they meet Jay and Aziz wasn’t interested in it. They had been pleasant enough, Jay was generally good with grown ups, good at being respectful and nice. They’d laughed when he’d said he’d heard a lot about them, which he guessed was the intended effect. 

Now, as they had their picture taken across the lawn with a grinning Aziz, Jay wondered what it would be like if his dad was there. If he’d be proud of him for graduating like Aladdin looked so proud of Aziz right then.


	13. Thirteen

The summer wasn’t quite as normal as the school year had been. They brought the four new VKs over. They’d had to cut Sammy after the council decided that each of the twins had to count as their own VK. Stepping on the isle again for the first time in so long, Jay could feel tension in the air. As much as it was supposed to be a happy day, he knew the others could tell as well that not everyone was happy with how things were shaking out. Not many VKs showed up to the selection announcement. The whole thing made Jay feel a little sick, having an announcement ceremony at all. He wanted to just apologize to everyone they couldn’t take, seeing them hopeful when they’d actually already told the chosen kids that they’d been chosen was… Too much, he thought. But Mal thought it seemed like a good idea. The event, ‘VK Day’ was televised in Auradon, showing the enthusiastic VKs would be good, she said.

She said they had nothing to feel bad about, anyway, they were doing the best that they could.

“The turnout wasn’t _that_ bad,” Mal would say, later in the car, leaning over into the front seat when it was brought up. Jay shrugged.

“It wasn’t great, though,” Evie said, watching as the isle grew smaller and smaller in the distance as they drove away.

“It’s going to be fine,” Mal said. “It’s just the start.” The same as always.

Then there was the proposal, which was actually good. It felt nice to have something so simple and joyful happen. Ben had come to the VKs weeks earlier to ask them about it.

“Should I like… Try and ask for her father’s blessing?” he’d asked nervously, pacing around Evie’s living room, which made Jay laugh and stop him.

“Even if Mal did have a dad, she would hate that,” he’d replied, hand on Ben’s shoulder. The VKs gave him their enthusiastic blessing, though, so excited for Mal. She deserved this, a lifetime of happiness with the man she loved. Jay wanted that for her more than anything. 

And of course she said yes, because she did love him. Jay saw it all over her face. She was going to make such a wonderful queen, he decided.

They got the VKs, Hades tried to escape. Mal stopped him.

Jay wondered how his dad was doing. They still hadn’t been to see their parents. It seemed weird if just one of them did… He didn’t know how to bring it up, even though he saw how Evie looked out in the direction of her mom’s castle. Hopeful yet scared. The bridge actually wasn’t far from the street where his father’s shop was, it wouldn’t take longer than a ten minute walk to be outside his childhood home. Jay couldn’t bring himself to it, though. Not while Carlos was still a borderline anxious mess every time they stepped back on their old turf. He’d gotten better at hiding it, but Jay could see through it, the way he’d get jumpy and suspicious. Meanwhile, Mal avoided looking down the very street Jay felt drawn back to. 

They’d do it together, Jay knew, when they were all ready.

Carlos told Jay he’d miss him the most, and he was right, of course. Jay would miss everything about Carlos so much. His laugh, his smile, the jokes he made, the way his hair had grown so long and it was always so messy that Jay had endless excuses to run his hands through it. “I’m fixing it,” he’d say when Carlos tried to swat his hands away. Jay was going to miss every freckle on the boy.

Audrey started doing whatever she was doing. Throwing her weird magic temper tantrum, and they had to go back to the isle for the third time that week. It felt very surreal. He saw Harry again, chasing after him when he’d taken their bikes with his pirates.

And then Harry and Gil jumped through the barrier, and Uma was there and Jay didn’t know what to make of the situation at all as Evie was insisting they all got along. His only thoughts were that he needed to keep Mal from completely losing it, even as he was also trying to keep a close eye on the pirates as Uma was impossible to read as ever and Harry was looking for ways to get up to no good, surely, and Gil.

Gil…

Gil marveled at the flowers, called grapes “cantaloupe” with confidence, and then he’d thanked a sleeping student for letting him eat them. He smiled, a lot. Genuine and warm and. Yeah. He smiled at everything and everyone, Jay noticed.

They tried to find Audrey and Ben at the castle, fought some suits of armor, almost became a cohesive team, and Evie complimented Harry’s accent as an icebreaker. They split up, then, the boys heading out into the woods.

Harry pulled Jay aside, at the back of the group. Carlos shot them a look but Jay said, “it’s fine,” and he looked away, continuing the search.

“Is Mal’s word really good?” Harry asked, hushed.

“Of course, she’s going to be queen,” Jay scoffed and Harry laughed under his breath.

“Right—I’m supposed to pretend that means anything, like your ‘king’ has managed to get how many kids off the isle so far? Eight? In two years?” Jay rolled his eyes at him.

“We’re doing our best, it’s not as simple as you’d think,” Jay said.

“Why not just take down the barrier,” Harry said.

“The people here in Auradon wouldn’t accept that, there’d be a revolt!” Jay hissed, turning away. Harry grabbed his wrist, stopping him from leaving, staring him in the eyes.

“And?” he said.

“And that would be bad,” Jay said, wrenching his wrist from Harry’s grip.

“Who cares?” Harry stepped closer to Jay, not breaking their staring contest. Carlos and Gil had stopped walking and were watching them now. “We’ve been trapped there our whole lives, Jay. You think we can’t handle a little revolt?”

“People will get hurt,” Jay said. “We’re trying to do this peacefully.”

“Yeah,” Carlos said, stepping beside Jay. Harry looked at him and shook his head.

“People are already being hurt,” Gil said, awkwardly playing with the bracelets on his wrist.

Harry laughed. “See, even Gill gets it! But you guys never did, and you still don’t,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter now, because Mal has promised us our freedom.”

“Exactly,” Carlos said. “So stop fighting, we have to find Ben.”

Jay took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. They continued to follow Dude deeper into the woods. The energy sucked but he didn’t know what to do about it. Carlos kept shooting him anxious looks.

Gil, though, seemed to have an idea. The icebreaker. He turned to Jay and complimented him, “I like the way you can bounce around and jump off of things.” A smile played on his lips and Jay felt his cheeks warm. He complimented him back.

“I like how you get a kick out of a berry bush.”

Even Harry’s heckling couldn’t quite pull Jay from the moment, his heart kind of racing as he tripped over his words and Gil smiled. He and Gil talked about rafting in a jungle river and finding lost civilizations and penguins. Gil beamed and Jay felt himself smiling at him in return. This was different, he hadn’t felt this way since. Since Carlos.

He grabbed some more berries for Gil as they left.

They found Ben, Jane was there now and she un-beasted him and Jay thought he looked pretty hot with the beard and fangs. He’d have to tease Mal over that, later. 

Jay had helped Harry and he’d called him ‘gorgeous face.’ Jay couldn’t follow his moods.

When they got back to Evie’s, Jay grabbed a clementine from Evie’s garden for Gil. Gil smiled at him in thanks and Jay felt shy. 

They split up again, Gil going off with Jane and Doug. He gave Jay a beaming smile as he left.

Jay was ready to stand by Mal, always. He’d told her that a thousand times, he would always be loyal to her. When she told them she’d lied… He didn’t know what to do. He looked at Carlos for help, and saw he couldn’t read him. Carlos had an incredible poker face, and he wore it well as he frowned at Mal.

Harry was upset, and Jay saw he was more vulnerable than he’d ever seen him. It was worse than when Jay had left the first time, as he muttered angrily at Ben. He glanced back at Jay as he walked away with Uma, eyes full of hurt.

Mal tried to say she did it for them, for their lives they’d made in Auradon. Jay kind of got it, too. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to keep Carlos safe there, to keep him and Evie and even Mal in Auradon’s golden light that they flourished under so well. If he thought closing the barrier permanently was what it took… Jay couldn’t say with confidence that he wouldn’t do it.

“You lied to Jay. You lied to Carlos. You lied to _me_. We’re your family, Mal.”

She had lied, though.

Jay lost some time, then, being turned to stone and all.

-

They came together after they were flesh and bone again. Audrey was dying, which was terrifying. She was annoying and had done all of this but Jay didn’t want her to die, none of them did.

Jay found out that Mal _did_ have a dad, and that he was a god, apparently. Jay felt a little hurt she hadn’t ever told him but. She hadn’t told her fiancé either, so it was fine, he guessed.

The pirates left, Jay only saw Gil shortly before he got in the car that would take him, Uma, Harry, and Celia away. He smiled at Jay, small and apologetic as he said ‘bye.’ Jay was reminded of a party years earlier. 

Hades came and healed Audrey, he said some things that were probably right.

And things were supposed to return to normal. They didn’t know how to tell the kids that the barrier was going to be closed. Jay focused on preparing to start school in the fall, him and Evie went on morning runs that were mostly silent. One day, though, they ran by the beach until they were completely out of breath, Jay struggling to keep up with Evie. Evie stared out across the water at the isle as she caught her breath, and then she just. Screamed. She screamed until her throat was raw, and Jay just stared at her.

“Mal has to change her mind!” Evie said, looking at Jay with wild eyes, filled with tears. “She can’t do this—We can’t abandon them, Jay!”

Jay’s throat burned with sadness. He pulled Evie close.

“We were so close,” Evie cried, letting him hold her, hands curling up into fists in his shirt. “We were so close, so fucking close!” She shook violently and Jay held her tighter.

“We just gotta trust her, Eves,” he said. “She’ll make the right choice, she always does.”

Because she had, hadn’t she, two years earlier when she chose good. She’d have to do it again, Jay had to believe that. He always stood by her because of this, because she was stronger than him, able to take risks even he couldn’t. She would do the right thing.

Evie cried until she was out of tears and they walked back to her castle.

The engagement party came, eventually. They wore clothes designed by Evie, as always, and Dizzy had helped them accessorize. They all tried to keep the mood light. Jay could tell Dizzy knew something was up, though. Celia hadn’t come back after all. The twins still seemed in the dark, which was good he guessed. They hadn’t seemed aware of much since arriving in Auradon, even more scared than Carlos had been back at the start. They were clean and safe, though, which was what was supposed to matter.

The party started off nice, Jay chatted with Audrey and Chad about absolutely nothing. College, mostly. The isle was so prominent on the skyline. Jay thought maybe the venue choice was supposed to be hopeful before, but now knowing what Mal had done… It felt like a cruel joke, celebrating Mal and Ben’s engagement that would make Mal queen and close the barrier in full display of the isle they were abandoning. Jay wondered how Ben felt about this all, saving the VKs had been his dream after all. 

Jay also wondered what Gil was doing over there, right at that moment. He wondered if there was any way he could send him more fresh fruits before the barrier was officially closed for good.

Mal and Ben arrived and it was time for a speech. Jay and Evie shared a nervous look, he tried to give her a hopeful smile. They had to trust her.

And of course, Mal chose good, again.

And Jay let out a deep breath, feeling a weight lift. from his shoulders. And Carlos was smiling and nodding, proud of his friend. And Evie looked so relieved and proud and happy she could cry. They went up to be with Mal as she declared the barrier had to be taken _down_. It made sense, Jay decided, even though it was absolutely insane. They knew by now that the people of Auradon were always going to find a reason to say no to them, so why give them the chance? And maybe Harry was right, what was a little revolt to them?

Gil was there, beaming and shining and Jay felt so excited. It was like a missing piece was falling into place as he ran across the bridge, with his friends by his side, to him. Jay put a hand on his shoulder, not wanting to lose him again as they returned to Auradon together.

“What do you say you and me go exploring?” Jay said, “I’ll do a gap year!” Because that’s what he wanted to do, now. He wanted to see where this could go, where Gil’s beaming grins and endless enthusiasm for _everything_ could take him. Gil agreed, and he looked so happy Jay felt he could burst. The party moved around them and he felt so fully happy.

-

The energy after that was just completely manic as more and more villains and their kids came over the bridge. Sammy Smee and his dad were being shown around the party by the twins, who finally seemed comfortable for the first time. They were wide eyed and shy still, though, as they introduced their dad and brother to everyone. Carlos ran up to Jay to point out that Chad was showing Anthony Tremaine how to take selfies on a smartphone, which made Jay laugh. Evil step-granddaughters flirted with Auradon boys, Pirates mingled with tourney jocks.

Jay saw Harriet arrive, wide eyed and in awe, CJ by her side and their father right behind them who just looked confused. All the villains who had dared to cross the bridge, most dragged by their kids, looked stunned into silence. Jay guessed that the barrier coming down after twenty plus years on what was a random Thursday to them probably was enough to shock you into a daze.

Harriet caught Jay’s eye and he waved at her. She grinned and ran to him, nearly bowling him over with a hug.

“Took you guys long enough!” she said. She pulled away, grinning at him.

“What do you mean?” Jay laughed.

“This is where this was always leading,” Harriet’s eyes twinkled as she grinned at him. “Couldn’t you tell?”

Jay didn’t know why the pirates were all so sure about this, but he smiled and nodded at her anyway.

“Oh! Captain Hook, perfect!” Mal was rushing up to them, and Harriet laughed. Captain Hook still mostly just looked baffled and dazed.

“Uh, yes?” he said.

“You have three kids and one just helped save Auradon… By association. You stay right here,” Mal said. Mal was followed by Ben and Hades, Ben was beaming and Hades gave Hook an apologetic shrug. 

Hook just nodded as Hades said, “It’s a whole thing.”

“Awesome, off to find more villains here who I can present as model citizens since this is all already starting to go up in flames,” Mal gave a desperate, breathless laugh and Harriet laughed.

“Can I help?” she asked.

“Look very innocent,” Mal said seriously.

“Okay, I’ll try,” Harriet laughed, and Mal ran off into the crowd with her dad by her side, followed by Ben who gave Jay an excited grin.

“This is really happening!” he said as he followed Mal and Hades

“Guess it’s time to deal with the revolt,” Jay said, half to himself.

“We’ve got this,” Harriet said, so sure of herself. She grinned back at her father and little sister. “Now I’ve got to go find my brother, I’ve heard he played a part in all of this.”

“Yeah, tell him thanks for me, okay?” Jay said. 

The Hooks went off into the growing crowd. Jay looked around, wondering if his father would make an appearance. There was no way he hadn’t realized something had happened, but Jay was wary about whether or not he’d make the first move… He’d never come to see Jay before, why would this be any different?

Jay felt someone bump into his shoulder, and he saw Carlos standing next to him, holding Dude tight in his arms. “No sign of any of our parents, except Hades.”

Jay nodded. “I guess there’s no reason to expect them to show. They’ve never shown up when we’ve gone to the isle.”

“It’s about time, though, right?” Carlos said and Jay gave him a surprised look. He looked nervous. Jay nodded, though, he was right.

“Yeah,” he said. “When the party dies down… It’s about time.”

The party died down eventually. The villains and VKs clearly felt apprehensive about returning to their homes on the isle, but Mal loudly assured everyone that the barrier was down for good, and Fairy Godmother told them all that it would take a while to put it back up even if they wanted to. Still, while many went home, not all did. Even as the sun began to set there were still plenty of VKs sitting out enjoying the sun in Auradon.

Jay stood by his friends, looking across the bridge. Him and Carlos hadn’t said anything to Mal and Evie but they got it. It was time.

“Do you ever miss them?” Evie asked, because she did, Jay knew. She missed her mother every day. Missed the way she doted on her and made her feel beautiful and special, if even for the wrong reasons. He knew she wanted to show her mother how beautiful and special she’d grown to be all on her own.

“Yeah,” Jay said, a bit breathless, because he missed his father just as much. Ached to see him again, to tell him all the right answers he’d learned in Auradon. About people and gold and how much he cared about him and how good that could feel to just _care_ so much about anything with your whole heart.

“Do you think they miss us?” Mal asked, nervous. She’d lost her mother when she went back to the isle at the end of their junior year. There had been word that she was a fairy again, in her Bargain Castle, but Mal had never confirmed it. He knew she was worried about what her mom thought of her after everything that happened, and he knew she ignored this all the time, but it was time to stop now.

“Yeah, of course,” Carlos said, sounding choked up. Jay could hear how he said it for their sakes. He could hear the tint of bitterness in it, a callback to when his mother had said she’d miss him before they left, but she’d meant she’d miss what he did for her.

They could do this, though. Together. Because they were rotten to the core and they’d done so much together already. They were a team, they were a family, they were everything they needed, their strength. Jay loved them all so much it hurt, it hurt so beautifully and wonderfully.

-

Jay went with Carlos to Cruella’s because he didn’t want him to face her alone. Because he knew Carlos would appreciate it. She was cold but not cruel, she acted like she had everything planned out, like the barrier had always been down. He thought she might be plotting something, but he didn’t want to rock the boat. She looked at him with suspicion, though, and when Carlos mentioned his girlfriend she laughed and gave Jay a disbelieving look. He frowned at her.

Carlos said he’d wait for Evie outside Hell Hall and Jay walked the familiar route to his father’s shop.

The streets were boisterous. People were using magic, they were filled with excitement even as the evening quickly turned to night.

Jay was outside his father’s shop.

His father stood in the doorway, looking at him. He looked older, even though it had only been two years. Jay couldn’t read his expression, not that he’d ever been particularly good at it. Iago was on his shoulder, looking between the two of them. Jay offered his dad a strained smile. “Hi, dad.”

Jafar nodded, beckoning him inside. Jay followed him.

The store was mostly empty, Jay noted. The shelves sparsely stocked without him to steal for them. Jay’s chest felt tight at the sight. He followed his father into the kitchen, though. It was surreal being in there again. His father sat down at the table. There weren’t many coins left on it. Jay sat down as well.

“Well,” Jafar said. Iago flapped his wings hesitantly before flying away, the air awkward enough.

Jay let out an awkward laugh. “Um,” he said. “Yeah.”

“You’ve been gone a long time,” Jafar said.

“Yeah,” Jay swallowed. “I missed you.”

Jafar nodded. “I missed you, too.”

Jay smiled but it hurt. “The store’s pretty empty, guess you needed me for that, right?”

Jafar gave him a long, considering look. “Yes,” he said slowly, before pivoting. “Is Mal well?”

“Yeah,” Jay nodded. “Really well, actually. About to become queen and everything.”

“Her mother must be proud,” Jafar said, and Jay felt his face warm at that, embarrassed.

“I got into a really good college,” he said, impulsive. It made him feel even more embarrassed, though, because he’d just said Mal was going to be _queen_ of all things and he just had ‘a really good college.’ His dad nodded again, though.

“That’s good,” he said. “A good education can be very useful.”

“That’s what Carlos says,” Jay laughed awkwardly. “I got in for sports, though. So. It’s not like I’m trying to be valedictorian or anything.”

“You’re a smart kid,” Jafar offered, and Jay was caught off guard at the compliment.

“Oh, uh, thanks, dad,” he said. They fell back into silence, Jay didn’t know what to say. His dad wore a ratty tracksuit like he did. Jay was still dressed for the party, in the nice clothes Evie had made for him with the nice accessories Dizzy had selected. His father was eyeing it all curiously.

“You look well,” he said after a while. “They’ve taken care of you over there?”

Jay thought he might hear concern in his father’s voice. “Yeah,” he nodded. “I’m, uh, I’m sorry. I should’ve come by to see you sooner… To bring you stuff or something.”

Jafar nodded at that, too, before he sighed. “Yes,” he said, before pausing. “I do understand, though... We had asked you kids to bring us all of Auradon, and you’ve never come back empty handed to me before.” He chuckled.

“I guess,” Jay said, chest tight.

“And now you’ve come back,” Jafar said, and Jay bit his lip.

“It’s been a long two years,” Jay said, trying to keep his voice steady, but it shook on the end of his sentence.

“It has,” Jafar agreed, looking a bit unsteady himself. “Look at you, you’ve become a man.”

Jay chuckled, rubbing at his eyes quickly as he felt tears threaten to well up. “I feel kind of stupid, right now. I had two years to prepare for this and yet I don’t know what to say… I’ve just learned so much, and sometimes I’d be mad at you that I had to learn all this new stuff as a teenager that came so easily to other people… And then I’d just be mad at Beast because it was his fault, he put us here, you know?”

Jafar nodded.

“But you weren’t good before the isle, either,” Jay said. “So I don’t really know what to think or feel, sometimes. Except that I miss you and I care about you and I want you to be good now, too, and have a good life, and I wanted to tell you that I get it. I get that that’s what you wanted for me, too, to have a good life. That’s what the big score was all about, it was about us having a good life.”

“Yes,” Jafar said. “I only ever wanted what was best for you, Jay.”

“I know,” Jay said, and he was shaking a bit. His dad had actual _concern_ on his face. Jay couldn’t remember whether he’d ever seen that before. Maybe the time he’d broken his leg jumping from a building as a kid or the time he’d got beat bad picking a fight he couldn’t win, and even though Mal had tried to bandage him up his father had still rushed to him to inspect his condition with a look of anger and. Yeah, concern. Jay had rationalized back then that it was fear that he wouldn’t be able to help out around the shop anymore if something happened to him, but now as Jay looked at his father he really did understand. “You were just wrong about it. We already had the big score, dad. Because we had each other, our family. That’s the important thing I found on Auradon. Not the actual diamonds and stones everyone just wore everywhere, not the honestly excessive amount of gold, but Evie, and Carlos, and _Mal_. The people I already had, here. And the whole time I kept thinking, ‘I wish my dad was here, too, to see this’. To see that it didn’t matter that all these beautiful high-value items were right there, easy to grab, the only thing mattered was the people around me. My family. And I wanted you there, too, because you’re my dad. My family.”

Jafar nodded slowly, and he looked sad, like he’d missed out on something. Jay thought he had. “Auradon has changed you.”

“Yeah,” Jay said. “I’m better, now.”

Jafar took a deep breath, reaching across the table to pat Jay’s hand. “I’ve seen you on the news, they talk about you kids sometimes, to show us how we can be improved by being good… I always thought you were such a happy child, especially next to Mal, but I’d never seen you smile like you do on the news, playing that tourney game.” Jay smiled, then. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say family is _all_ you need… But I am glad you returned, Jay.”

Jay felt full of warmth. He smiled at his dad, who had a small smile in return for him. Things weren’t perfect, Jay knew. For the first time he felt like more than an errand boy for his father.

They talked small talk, then, Jafar asked about tourney and college. Jay told him his plans for the future, to join a professional tourney team. He didn’t really mention Gil or the gap year, feeling still a bit overwhelmed by that decision of his. He was sure of it, of course, but it was just. a lot. He talked about his friends, how Evie, Carlos, and Mal were doing, what they’d been up to. How Carlos had been valedictorian, how Evie was running a business. He felt a bit embarrassed, still, that his biggest achievement was just. Being good at a sport. His father didn’t seem to pass any judgment, though, seemed impressed enough with Jay when he talked about getting MVP on the team two years in a row and how he was the first kid from his school to get scouted for Sherwood Forest University in so many years. When he talked about R.O.A.R. he told Jafar about Lonnie, and he asked if that was his girlfriend.

“No,” Jay said, wrinkling his nose.

“Is there any girl?” Jafar asked. “A princess, perhaps?” he mused.

Jay considered his response. “No princess, no… No girl, at all, actually. Uh, there won’t ever be a girl, actually.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on Mal?” Jafar asked.

“For the hundredth millionth time, dad, there is nothing between me and Mal,” Jay sighed. “Look—I’m gay, dad.”

It was easier to say than he expected. His father stared at him for a long second, the wheels in his mind visibly turning. “And you let Mal take the King?” he said after his pause, and Jay burst out laughing. “I’m serious, Jay, the king of all of Auradon, you just let her have him? At least tell me you tried.”

“Dad!” Jay laughed, shaking his head. “Evil, I can’t wait to tell Mal you said that.”

Jafar scoffed with a shake of his head, but he smiled a bit, too. Jay grinned.

Jay left shortly after, wanting to meet Mal at the Bargain Castle before they were all set to meet up at the bridge. It felt nostalgic in a good way to be able to climb up to the balcony like he used to. There were stars in the sky, now, and the moon cast a bright light down on the castle. When Jay got up to the balcony he looked in the window and saw Mal and her mom, who was clearly not a lizard anymore. Maleficent was tucking a lock of hair behind Mal’s ear, smiling softly at her daughter. She saw Jay and Mal looked over her shoulder and saw him, too. Her eyes were glassy and she smiled at Jay, big and wide. She said something to her mom who nodded and left the room before she got up and opened the window, climbing out it.

“Hey,” Mal said.

“We’re back at the start, huh,” Jay said, leaning back against the stone railing at the edge of the balcony.

“Yeah,” Mal said, moving to stand next to him, leaning her elbows on the railing. “It’s all different, though.” Jay nodded. “How was your dad?”

“Good, I think,” Jay said. “We talked, and I think it went well… Oh, I told him I’m gay and he told me I should’ve tried to take Ben for myself.”

“Oh my god,” Mal laughed. “That’s horrible.”

“I dunno, I think Ben looked pretty hot with the beard and fangs…” Mal hit Jay on the shoulder and Jay laughed. “How about your mom? I see she’s not a lizard.”

“Yeah, I don’t know if she really just learned how to love or if the magic just died on the isle,” Mal said. “But she seemed really… Good. She said she missed me and that she was proud of me.”

“You are about to be queen,” Jay said. “Even my dad was impressed… Made my achievements look pretty small.”

“What can I say? I’m an overachiever,” Mal said with a smirk and a shrug, and god it just felt right. Even as they wore their nice clothes, this was what home was, Jay thought. Sitting on the balcony of the Bargain Castle with Mal, talking shit. “Hey, I saw you with Gil at the party—What’s all that about?”

“Oh,” Jay said, cheeks pink. “I actually think I’m gonna take a gap year, go traveling with him.”

“What?” Mal asked, looking surprised and amused.

“I dunno, I like him,” Jay said. “Like… I really like him. It’s crazy.”

Mal gave Jay a sideways look, calculating. “Like for real? Not like you’re trying to distract yourself from Carlos again or anything?”

“Yeah, like… For real, for real. It’s scary, honestly, he makes my heart race and I just want to get to know everything about him,” Jay said. Mal nodded slowly.

“I still think… You should tell Carlos how you feel, though,” she said.

Jay sighed, shaking his head. “I literally just told you about my plans to go on a gap year with a different guy, and this is your advice?”

“I just…” Mal bit her lip, expression growing serious. “Listen, I know it’s not my place but… I think Carlos is… Confused, and I think Jane is going to get hurt.”

Jay frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Carlos is _gay_ ,” Mal said, and her expression showed that she was absolutely dead serious. Jay shook his head.

“He’s not, Mal,” Jay said, pushing away from the railing.

“Listen to me, Jay,” Mal said, grabbing his arm. “It’s not just a hunch… I saw the way he looked at Ben when we first got to Auradon, and when I sit in at your tourney practices sometimes he just stands there and watches the other boys with this look… And I know that look because it’s the one you give him sometimes, when he’s like, wearing a really tight shirt or something and you’re staring at his arms all day.” Mal looked away, embarrassed, she took a deep breath. “He looks at you like that.”

“Mal,” Jay said, weak. “This isn’t funny, it’s actually really mean… He’s dating Jane.”

“Exactly!” Mal said. “So you have to tell him how you feel so he’ll realize he doesn’t like her like that!”

“I can’t,” Jay said. “I can’t do that.” 

Mal gave a frustrated sigh. “Listen, at least talk to him, then. Tell him you get it because you’re gay, too.”

“He’s not gay, Mal,” Jay said. “Stop saying that.”

Mal shook her head. “I just don’t want to see him or Jane get hurt. It’s gone on too long, you saw how upset she was when he forgot her birthday!”

“That was just a mistake, they’re happy together,” Jay insisted, but Mal shook her head. Jay settled back down next to her, leaning close to her. He didn’t know if she was upset he was take a gap year to travel with Gil and this was just a desperate attempt to get him to stay or what, but he didn’t want it to taint the night so he pressed close to her. “You’ve got enough on your plate to worry about right now, so. Okay. I’ll talk to him,” he said. “He’s not gay, but I’ll talk to him and see how things are going with Jane.”

Mal sighed and nodded. “You’re right about how full my plate is right now... I can’t believe we just broke down the whole barrier!” she shook her head. “It’s going to be insane… But no villains have tried to take over all of Auradon, yet, so it’s looking good, right?”

“Right,” Jay grinned, glad to have changed the topic of conversation. “Come on, let's go meet the others at the bridge.”

And they did, holding hands as they walked through the still active celebrations in the streets. People cheered for them as they went by, recognizing them easily as they weren’t exactly dressed in typical isle casual-wear. Evie and Carlos were waiting together at the bridge. Evie was barefoot, holding her shoes and leaning her head on Carlos’s shoulder. Jay smiled, you knew it was a long day if Evie had to take off her heels.

They walked across the bridge, Jay wrapping an arm around Carlos’s waist. The four talked about seeing their parents. Carlos was planning on going back in a couple of weeks, with Jane. Evie wanted to bring her mom some trendy cosmetics. 

The moon was full, it was a good night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> time for the jay/gil portion of this fic and we are officially in post-canon !! 
> 
> also, adding another chapter to the estimated length 😳


	14. Fourteen

Jay and Gil sat on the floor of the living room in Evie’s castle, a detailed map of Auradon laid out before them.

“I just want to go everywhere,” Gil said, eyes big. “There’s just… so much.”

“Mm,” Jay said, popping a grape into his mouth from the bowl they had on the coffee table. “We’ll do it all, see everything.”

They were planning out their travels for Jay’s gap year. It was nice, he decided. Gil was so cute when he got into planning mode, his brow furrowed and his lips pursed. Very serious. Jay grinned as Gil began circling the ‘most important’ places and jotting down notes on the map. He stopped to grab his phone, though, and take a picture to post to instagram. Gil was a big fan of the app, the second he got a phone he wanted to take pictures of everyone and everything and post it. It was really cute, even if it made Jay’s face grow red when he looked at how much he appeared on Gil’s page already. 

The pirates had managed to get their ship across the waters between the isle and Auradon and had docked in Belle’s Harbor for the time being. Gil spent a lot of time at Evie’s lately, as he and Jay worked on their travel plans and just hung out, sometimes. Sometimes they’d lose track of time and Gil would be there late and sure, he stayed in Jay’s room. He’d posted a picture of the two of them in Jay’s bed recently and the comments had blown up with eye emojis and exclamation points.

But they weren’t really Dating yet, but Jay wanted to. He was just looking for the right opening to bring it up to Gil. 

So they just planned for their travels. They were going to finish off the summer just in Auradon City, as there was plenty to do there. He and Gil would walk through the city sometimes, trying out little cafes and looking through shops for fun. They were kind of like dates, but again, Jay was waiting for the right time to bring that idea up.

“Hey,” Gil said, after posting his picture of the map with his notes on it, looking up at Jay. “Harry and I were talking the other day and he asked me if you and I were dating.”

“Oh,” Jay said, realizing that maybe the right time was happening right then. “What did you say?”

“I said I didn’t know, I mean… I’ve never dated anyone, before,” Gil looked away, shy. “Honestly, boys are hard to talk to, so handsome and intimidating.”

Jay smirked. “Even me?”

“Especially you!” Gil said. “But also, sometimes not at all with you. Sometimes talking to you is just so easy I get a bit overwhelmed with it, because I like talking to you so much.”

“I like talking to you, too,” Jay said. “A lot… I actually was gonna ask if you did want to. Go out, I guess. We’ve already basically gone on a hundred first dates, out to cafes and shit…”

Gil was beaming, cheeks a bit pink and his eyes sparkling. “I’d like that,” he said. “I really like you, Jay. Like a lot.”

It was a bit intense in the way that Jay was learning Gil always was. “Me too,” he said. “I mean—I like you a lot.”

Gil scooted closer to Jay, then, crumpling their map a little. “I’m gonna kiss you,” he said and Jay’s heart jumped into his throat.

“Okay,” he said. Gil put a hand on his cheek, it was warm and Jay leaned into it. They just looked at each other for a moment before he leaned in and kissed him. The kiss was warm, soft, gentle. When Gil pulled away he was grinning widely.

“Nice,” he said and Jay laughed and kissed him again, pressing into it and nipping at Gil’s bottom lip. Gil laughed and kissed back fiercely, hand coming up into Jay’s hair as he deepened it. It was fun and exciting and Jay felt so fucking happy to be kissing him. It was different from the boys he’d kissed before, like a missing piece of the action was finally _there_ that made it so perfect. Gil looked a bit dazed when Jay pulled away. Giddy, too.

“Oh,” came from the doorway. 

Jay looked over and saw Carlos standing there, and of course all his existing feelings for him crashed over him like a wave. It was confusing, he pulled away from Gil, hoping his conflicted emotions weren’t too obvious. Carlos looked embarrassed. “Sorry, uh, Evie just wanted me to come see if you guys wanted lunch? We’re making pizzas.”

“Oh, pizza!” Gil said, jumping up. “Yes!”

Jay laughed, and Gil grabbed his hand when he stood up, dragging him into the kitchen. They made pizzas with Evie and Carlos and it was nice and only a little confusing for Jay. It was the first time since they were little that Jay really didn’t know how to act around Carlos, but he just. Focused on Gil and tried to ignore it. Which wasn’t too hard, Gil was enthusiastic about the pizza making process and the four of them were having fun.

There was something about the embarrassed look on Carlos’s face from earlier, though, that kept jumping to the front of his mind.

-

Jay drove Gil back to Belle’s Harbor that evening. He finally had his own car, a beat up used SUV he’d bought shortly after the barrier had been taken down. Walking across the bridge four times in one day had really helped kick him into gear about that.

Harry was standing on the docks when they arrived, arms crossed.

“Hey, lover boy,” he said to them when Jay pulled the car up. Gil was grinning as he got out of the car and Harry let out a little scoff, even as his smile towards him had a bit of warmth in it. Harry looked at Jay with only fire in his eyes, though, stepping up to the car and leaning on it. “Go on to the ship, Gil, I wanna talk to Jay.”

“Okay, but be nice to him, Harry. He’s my boyfriend now,” Gil said cheerfully, heading down the docks towards the ship. “See you later, Jay!” he called back. Jay waved after him.

He and Harry sat at the edge of docks, reminiscent of another life. Harry gave him a long searching look that Jay suspected was supposed to be intimidating but he’d never been scared of him before and wasn’t about to start now.

“Just get on with it, Hook, it’s getting late,” Jay sighed and Harry laughed.

“Listen, Jay, I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, it’s been a long time since we… Had our little thing,” Harry said. “Which is why I haven’t just told Gil to kick you to the curb already.”

Jay frowned. “You’re right, it’s been a long time. Why even bring it up?”

Harry shrugged. “I just wanna make sure you’re not planning on using Gil as a distraction from…” Harry waved his hand abstractly. “Other things.”

“If you’re talking about Carlos—That was a long time ago, too,” Jay said, and Harry narrowed his eyes. “I like Gil a lot, I wouldn’t lie about that.”

“Good,” Harry said, clipped. “Now you better not hurt him, okay? Or else you will be answering to Uma and me.”

“You really don’t scare me, Harry,” Jay laughed. “But I’m not gonna let Gil get hurt, okay?”

Harry accepted this with a huff. He looked away and Jay sighed.

“Listen, though… I’m sorry,” Jay said, and Harry looked at him in surprise. “I’m sorry for not realizing your feelings back then. That you liked me.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Harry said, a bit bewildered. “We used each other, I just—“

“It’s not wrong to feel things for people,” Jay said, cutting him off. “I liked spending time with you back then, too, even if I didn’t really have feelings for you like that. I shouldn’t have brushed you off at the end the way I did, and I should’ve been more honest, I think.”

Harry nodded slowly. “Okay,” he said. “Uh, thank you.”

Jay smiled at him, and Harry laughed a bit, clearly confused.

“You’re not a bad guy, huh, Jay?”

“Not anymore,” Jay said with a grin.

“Just make sure you’re ready for this, this time, okay?” Harry said, and Jay nodded.

“I know.”

-

Jay went to go see his father one last time before he left on his gap year. He brought him some stuff, some of his own favorite foods, and some stuff he’d got at an import store that were from Agrabah. His dad had been a bit overwhelmed by it, touched. It made Jay smile.

“So you’re going to be gone for a year, then? What happened to going to that good school?” Jafar asked as he looked through the items.

“I’m taking a gap year, assessing my priorities and stuff,” Jay shrugged, tossing a biscuit to Iago, who accepted it graciously. “Honestly, though, I met someone and I just wanted to spend time with him. Which I know is against everything you ever taught me but. It’s what I want.”

His dad gave him a considering look before nodding. “It won’t hurt your future prospects?”

“I don’t think so,” Jay said. “I’ll still become the top pro tourney player, make a bunch of money, and you’ll never have to work another day in your life.”

Jafar snorted, opening a little box of sweets and eating one.

“I used to think I’d never really be able to do anything for us,” Jay confessed. Jafar looked surprised.

“Why?” he said.

“Everything I ever stole was garbage, not enough, not the big score we needed,” Jay shrugged, grabbing a candy for himself.

Jafar gave him an incredulous look. “You were always a hardworking boy.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Jay said simply, and he felt surprised when his father sighed, shaking his head.

“You’re right,” he chuckled. “I guess I thought I was helping you to aim higher, think bigger…”

“Mostly it made me apathetic,” Jay said with a little smile, a bit confused.

“You’ve… Done good, Jay,” Jafar said, offering him an awkward smile and it was kind of too much. Jay ducked his head, embarrassed, picking at the candy wrapper in his hand. 

“Thanks,” he said, awkward as well.

He didn’t stay much longer after that, and he felt weird when he left, like he was forgetting something. He made it halfway down the street to where he parked his car before he stopped and turned around. He jogged back down the street, back to his dad’s shop. He ran inside, his dad was at the table, putting everything back in the bags Jay had brought, and Jay fel himself grinned at him before running up to him and giving him a hug.

“Thanks, dad, I mean it,” he said, arms wrapped around him. He was taller than his father. His heart hurt and his chest ached. “Thanks for everything, for trying.”

His father held him back, and Jay squeezed him tighter. “I’m so sorry,” Jafar said, voice thick. “I’m so sorry, Jay.”

“I know,” Jay said. “I forgive you, for everything. I’m sorry it was the way it was, I’m sorry I was gone for so long.” When Jay pulled away he wiped his cheeks with the heels of his hands, realizing he’d started crying which felt stupid but right. His dad gave him a sad, genuine smile. His dad may be an awful, selfish man who had done awful things, and had fucked up really bad when raising Jay properly but… Jay loved him. And he did forgive him. And he thought things might be different now. Better. Good.

Jay felt lighter when he left, optimistic like he’d achieved something that day.

-

Jay was with Gil, now, and Carlos was still with Jane. Jay tried not to think about what Mal had said at the bargain castle, her request for Jay to talk to Carlos but sometimes… Sometimes things felt weird. Like even though things were looking up, he could see something bad coming up on the horizon. And this feeling usually came when he and Carlos were close. The four VKs would be up late watching a movie and Jay would put his arm around Carlos like he usually did and Carlos would look surprised and give him that weird look he used to when Jay did something nice for him back at Dragon Hall. One time Jay wrapped his arms around Carlos’s waist as he sat at the kitchen island ordering lunch on his laptop, resting his chin on Carlos’s shoulder, and Carlos had froze. Tense.

“Is Gil over?” Carlos had asked.

“No?” Jay said, unsure why that was relevant. He’d let go of Carlos, though, but he didn’t really relax then, either.

So as Jay and Gil’s departure date was quickly approaching, Jay decided that maybe it would be best to say something. He didn’t really think Mal was right, but something was clearly up. Maybe Carlos did like guys as well as girls and didn’t know how to reconcile that with his relationship with Jane, so Jay’s relationship with Gil was making him uncomfortable? Jay hated the idea of that, but he wanted to clear the air so things could be normal.

It was the night before Jay was set to leave with Gil. He and Carlos were out on the lawn, enjoying their last moments together just the two of them. Carlos actually seemed pretty relaxed, compared to how he’d been the last few weeks. It was nice, and Jay was beginning to second guess bringing anything up. He’d practically decided not to, but…

Carlos looked really good, in the moonlight. And Jay thought of what Harry had said, about making sure he was really ready to commit to Gil.

Jay wanted to be. And maybe. Maybe it was the words unsaid that were making things so confusing.

So he said it, because it was time. It was time for closure. Jay thought he could finally accept Carlos’s rejection.

“I’m in love with you, Carlos.” He hadn’t meant for it to come out like that, but he figured it wouldn’t really matter. “I just thought you should know. Before I leave.”

“Why?” Carlos asked, and Jay didn’t know what he wanted him to say. This wasn’t going how he expected, he wanted things to become less confusing but suddenly he just fell back into all of it. All the wanting from the last six years washing over him anew.

But then he saw it.

Carlos had an excellent poker face. Jay must have caught him off guard, though, because he wasn’t wearing it at all.

Jay saw everything.

Mal was right, at least about the way Carlos looked at him, he realized. He recognized his expression because it was like looking in a mirror at all the emotions he’d felt for so long. Carlos felt something for him, too. For how long, Jay didn’t know, but he could see the longing plain on his face. He understood the weird looks Carlos had given him in the past, and his mind was connecting dots at lightning speed.

Carlos didn’t do anything, though, so Jay looked away, back up at the stars. Something just wasn’t right.

“I’m going inside,” Carlos said after a while.

“Okay,” Jay said. Carlos was gone, and as Jay heard the door close behind him he let out a long breath, lying on his back.

That was closure, then.

The next morning Jay said goodbye to his friends, they hugged him and Gil said goodbye to his pirates as well. They drove off, together. Jay felt lighter than he had in his life, he’d slept well the night before after he came down from the anxiety high of his revelation regarding Carlos’s feelings.

And it was just Gil and Jay. It was good, Jay decided. It was really good that way.

-

Gil and Jay went to the lantern festival in Corona and braided flowers into each other’s hair and took a million pictures for Gil’s instagram. They went to Neverland and Olympus and Gil was fascinated by everything. He loved talking to the people everywhere they went. Jay could be content just to watch and listen with an arm around Gil’s waist and his head resting on his shoulder as Gil asked about the history of everything and what foods each region they visited he had to try. Gil loved anything sweet and fruity. In King George Town they had spent a full day at a bakery trying every pie they made. 

They went rafting down the rivers between Eden and the Enchanted Forest, camping by the waterfall there. Jay got sick off some wild fruit that was apparently _not_ supposed to be eaten, but he didn’t die so it was mostly just funny. Gil cooed over Jay as he complained about his stomachache.

“Why aren’t you sick?” Jay groaned.

“My stomach’s still used to all the horrible stuff from the isle, I guess,” Gil said cheerfully as he made Jay drink some water. “Soon I’ll be as sensitive as you.” And Jay laughed even though it was a little sad.

They hiked up the mountains, which was fun, camping out in caves sometimes then. There was a rainy night where they sat in a cave by a fire, sitting close together on the bedroll they were sharing when Jay looked at Gil and thought he could fall in love with him. 

Their trip to the mountains actually did have a specific destination. A little vacation cabin they’d booked online, so remote you couldn’t drive out to it. Gil and Jay had been so excited over the pictures of it when they’d seen it in a sketchy social media ad after all their travel research, they actually decided to on the fly change their carefully laid out route to add it onto their trip. It added about a week of hiking round trip to their travels and they’d had to find somewhere to leave the car parked in a small town near the Enchanted Woods, but it was fun. Impulsive and stupid and _fun_.

When they got to the cabin after days of hiking, Gil looked up at it with awe. It was cold, high up in the mountains, hidden in a densely wooded area. It didn’t look as nice as it did in the ad, which made sense since renting a cabin from a random ad was kind of a sketchy thing to do, but were they not supposed to be on an adventure? It looked kind of cool, anyway, a bit worn down.

“This is awesome,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Like in one of those creepy video games Carlos likes.”

Jay laughed. “Let’s hope there’s no zombies out here.” 

There were keys in a lockbox, Gil retrieved the code for it from his text messages. 

Inside the place was a bit dank, feeling kind of like the owners didn’t come up to do maintenance there often. They turned on the main light, which was dim. A ceiling fan with only one of the light bulbs working.

“Nice,” Gil said, grinning at Jay and Jay grinned right back. It was pretty sick.

The cabin had a rustic, cold feeling to it, and was literally freezing but there was a fireplace that they quickly worked on getting going. There were some hunting trophies on the walls, which Gil laughed at saying, “this is just like my dad’s,” as he brought blankets from the bedroom, which they’d confirmed was too cold to relax in, to the main room.

Jay was working on making sure the fire was set as he looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, feels a bit like the isle,” he said.

Gil settled on the couch, and Jay joined him after a moment. Gil leaned against him, burying them both in blankets. “I’m glad I’m not on the isle anymore, but it was kind of fun sometimes, right?”

“Mm,” Jay said. “Our turf wars and gang fights,” he chuckled. “We did have fun.”

“Yeah, you and Mal really liked fighting us,” Gil said, smiling fondly. “Until you guys started hanging out with Carlos and Evie… Then when you left, of course.”

Jay gave him an apologetic smile. “Yeah. Things got complicated.”

“It really sucked after you guys left,” Gil said. “Uma was so mad and Harry was so sad about it… I think he really liked you.” Gil’s cheeks were pink.

“Yeah, I kind of felt like crap when I realized that,” Jay said awkwardly. “Like… He was actually nice to me and I didn’t even realize it.”

Gil wrapped his arms around Jay’s waist now. “I don’t wanna talk about Harry anymore,” he pouted and Jay laughed.

Gil smiled at him, illuminated by the firelight and Jay kissed him. Gil exhaled, leaning into it. Jay drank him up as Gil moved to put his hand on his chest, pressing lightly, and Jay took the hint, falling back with an easy smile, Gil grinning above him on the couch. They kissed, and Jay loved the intensity that Gil managed to put in every single one, every time. His kisses were like a rainstorm on a sunny day, a shower of affection in the brightness of midday. Gil was always like a sunshower himself, warming Jay with every touch as his hands slid under Jay’s shirt. He sighed happily into Jay’s mouth.

He pulled away, just for a second to say, “I really like this.”

And Jay pulled him back in with a grin and a breathy “yeah, same” that made Gil giggle against his mouth as the kissing resumed.

Gil’s hands became more insistent, and Jay laughed as he helped him pull their shirts off before they began grabbing at each other’s belts. The chilly cabin suddenly felt warm. Gil kissed down Jay’s chest, and Jay tangled his hands in Gil’s blonde hair.

Jay had forgotten how much fun sex could be, and it was even better than he could of remembered with Gil and his beaming laughter and smiles, the silly little quip she made and that jay easily returned with ones of his own. Out in their little secluded cabin in the woods, sketchily rented for the next two nights, where an axe murderer could jump out at them in any moment, it was absolutely fucking perfect. Jay basked in Gil’s enthusiasm. He wanted everything Gil could give him, and he returned the feelings in full. It was good.

After, with Gil laying half on top of him, hand idly running over Jay’s chest while Jay’s hand stroked through his hair as they caught their breath, came down from the high of it, Gil said, “so… Was I better than Harry?”

And Jay shoved him off the couch, laughing. “Oh my god, Gil!” Gil grinned at him, all cheeky and mischievous from his place on the floor now. Jay really thought he might be falling helplessly for him.

-

In late Autumn they arrived in Northern Wei. They drove through the cities, the food was really different there and so of course Gil wanted to try everything. Jay was excited to see Lonnie again, they were planning on spending a few days at her family’s house while she was home during the short break between summer training and the beginning of the pro R.O.A.R season. A couple hours from Lonnie’s home they were sitting outside a small bakery eating soft, fluffy pastries and some peaches they’d got from a stall down the street, when Jay called Lonnie to let her know they were only a couple hours away.

“Hurry!! I miss you so much, Jay, I’m like… Dying,” Lonnie said dramatically, and Jay couldn’t help but laugh at her.

“You’ll make it a couple more hours, we’re just taking our time to enjoy the sights out here. It’s cool,” Jay said.

“The food’s good!” Gil said around a mouth full of pastry.

“Gil said the food’s good,” Jay said to Lonnie.

“It’s the best, now hurry up and get over here because my grandma is making dinner and it’s gonna be even better!” Lonnie said.

“We’ll be there soon,” Jay said, shaking his head. “Just be patient!”

“I haven’t seen my best friend in months, I can’t be patient!” Lonnie whined. Jay laughed at her but told her they’d be on their way soon.

They (“finally,” as Lonnie would say) got to Lonnie’s as the sun was going down. Lonnie ran out to them and practically bowled Jay over with a hug before he was even fully out of the car. He laughed, grabbing her and picking her up in a hug.

“Jay! Jay!” Lonnie chanted. “I can’t believe you’re here!” She pulled away and then punched his chest. “You took way too long!”

Jay grinned at her, “blame Gil, he kept making us stop.”

Jay set Lonnie down and she looked over the car at Gil. He was giving her a shy smile, looking a bit nervous.

“Hey!” he said.

“Hello!” Lonnie said. “We’ve met before, I guess, but to introduce myself formally—I’m Lonnie, daughter of Mulan, it’s nice to meet you.”

Gil smiled a bit wider. “I’m Gil,” he said cheerfully. “You were really awesome in our battle last year,” he added.

“Thanks,” Lonnie chirped, as they all started towards her home.

Jay tousled her hair. “She’s a pro now.”

“Youngest woman to ever get signed to a pro team, actually,” Lonnie said, flipping her hair. “And the first openly lesbian pro R.O.A.R. competitor.”

“That’s awesome,” Gil said. “You guys do so many cool things here in Auradon—like sports and shit.”

“You can now, too,” Lonnie said, pushing the door to the courtyard open. “Welcome to the land of opportunity.” She said it was a hint of sarcasm, but there was also a genuinely enthusiastic sparkle to her eyes.

Jay had met Mulan and Li Shang before, but he’d never met Lonnie’s grandparents. They didn’t speak much english, but they were nice enough to Jay and Gil. Gil was very enthusiastic over dinner, complimenting Lonnie’s grandma profusely for how good it was, which Lonnie laughed at and translated for her. She seemed happy with it, patting Gil on the cheek and telling him something that Lonnie translated to, “eat up.”

Jay was learning that Gil could easily endear anyone to him. They weren’t recognized as VKs everywhere they went, but sometimes people recognized Jay from the old news stories about the VKs arrival to Auradon, and there would be whispers around them. Gil seemed oblivious to these shifts in mood, though, and would continue on talking to people and charming them and people would just. Calm down, the air of suspicion would disperse as Gil cheerfully asked about a local legend or famous cuisine and laughed his sun shining smile. Jay thought Gil should’ve been chosen to come to Auradon first. He believed everyone in Auradon would’ve been so full of guilt that they’d ever allowed someone as good and glowing and charming as him to be trapped on the isle, all Gil would have to do was ask and they’d immediately demand the barrier be taken down. Maybe that’s why the pirates had always been so confident that things would turn out this way, they just needed to get Gil out there.

After dinner Lonnie dragged Jay and Gil to her room to watch movies on her laptop, all of them piled onto her bed. They watched Lonnie and Jay’s favorite street racing movie series, which Gil loved, and then they watched Lonnie’s favorite romance drama, as she insisted that Jay _did_ love it because he was even more of a romantic sap than she was, which was. True, but she shouldn’t say it. Gil laughed and cried at the film, though, and told Jay that it was the best movie ever.

It was really late, then, and Lonnie showed Jay and Gil to their room.

“Grandma set up an extra futon because… Yeah, but you don’t have to use it,” Lonnie said. It was a simple room, one bed and a futon rolled out on the floor. Jay snorted, nodding as Gil collapsed onto the bed.

“I’m so tired,” he said. “It’s been such a long day.”

Jay smiled at him, feeling soft and warm. Lonnie bumped her shoulder against his bicep and grinning at him when he looked at her. He shook his head, ducking it with a self conscious chuckle.

He slept well that night, they’d had to sleep in the back of the car with the seat put down for the last couple nights, so it felt nice to be in a bed again. Gil curled up next to him, arm across Jay’s chest and their legs tangled together.

-

When the early morning sun streamed into the room, Jay woke up. Gil had snatched all of the blankets, curled up in them on one side of the bed. Jay grinned at him as he yawned, rolling out of the bed and grabbing his phone from next to it. He had a text from Mal, telling him to call her sometime and a couple of snapchats from Evie. A mirror selfie from a full body mirror on a door, she was sitting on a bed, Carlos was behind her, lying down and working on some homework or something. Evie was holding a peace sign up and had written “hanging with this college boy and missing you!!!” on the picture with a crying emoji. The next one was another selfie, this time with the front facing camera, her striking a pose and the writing “tell me my makeup looks good today c is ignoring me” she wrote with a lipstick emoji.

Jay chuckled, he’d send her a picture of the sunrise with his response. He pulled on his jacket before slipping out of the room, heading out to the courtyard. He was surprised to see Lonnie outside, feeding the chickens, humming to herself. Jay took a picture of her for his snapchat reply, staying back so she wouldn’t see him.

“lonnie the farmgirl :) also your makeup is beautiful carlos is an asshole” Jay wrote on it before sending Evie the snap.

“Good morning,” Jay said, jogging up to Lonnie. Lonnie looked over her shoulder at him, smiling.

“You’re up early,” she said, cheerfully.

“As always,” Jay returned. “I came out to take a picture of the sunrise for Evie.”

“I miss Evie,” Lonnie said. “I miss everyone. My team is super awesome, and it’s cool to be back home, but I kind of wish I was back at Auradon Prep sometimes.”

“That’s growing up, I guess,” Jay said, kicking the dirt. Lonnie nodded.

“Look at you, though, going on your insane gap year with your first real boyfriend! That’s crazy,” Lonnie said. “You always look so happy on Gil’s insta. I actually screencapped one of his stories of you at the lantern festival in Corona and used it as my phone background for a while.”

“Shut up,” Jay said, shaking his head.

“You looked so sweet!” Lonnie said. “My teammates kept asking if you were my girlfriend.” Jay shoved Lonnie’s shoulder and she grinned.

Lonnie wanted to do some practice for R.O.A.R. so after Gil woke up and they ate breakfast they went out to the garden to fight. It was fun. Lonnie and Jay went against each other while Gil sat down on the grass and watched, then they taught him some of the forms and rules. He sparred against them a bit, which felt nostalgic and sweet and Jay was happy. He was just really happy.

When he called Mal that evening after dinner she said so much, too. “You sound lighter,” she said.

“Yeah?” he asked, feeling a bit apprehensive because if he sounded lighter, she definitely sounded heavier. “How’s queen business going?”

“Complicated as always,” she said. “The barrier is still down and the people haven’t stormed the castle though, so, it’s fine. People in Agrabah are petitioning to separate from Auradon, though.”

“Really awesome that I’m going there next,” Jay sighed.

“It’ll be fine, they’ve got no backing from anyone important… We’ve just got to work on building up mine and Ben’s positive image and a positive image of everyone from the isle… Somehow.”

“How are you and Ben?” Jay asked.

“Really good, thankfully. He started at ACU, but only part time since there’s so much going on. He really loves school, almost as much of a nerd as Carlos,” she snorted. “Have you talked to him or Evie lately?”

“Uh, kind of,” Jay said. “I snapped Evie this morning and Carlos was there with her, so. There’s that.”

“Not to ruin the call but, did you ever talk to him about… You know?” Mal asked.

Jay hesitated. He hadn’t told Mal about him confessing his feelings for Carlos, and the revelation of it all. He didn’t really think it was his place, especially since Carlos hadn’t actually told Jay anything. Also, Mal had already made a decision on how Carlos felt about Jane, and Jay didn’t think he could say anything on that. Carlos could like both him and Jane, just like Harry had liked him and Uma. Things could be that complicated.

“Oh?” Mal said, when Jay hadn’t spoken for too long.

“I did, but it’s… I don’t know, I think we should stay out of it, Mal. I’ve already told Carlos he can’t play around with Jane, and we have to trust him,” Jay said. “They’re happy together, you’ve seen them.”

“Happy like you and me are happy together, maybe,” Mal said.

“No, Mal, happy like you and Ben. Like Evie and Doug, like me and Gil,” Jay said firmly and he could basically hear Mal roll her eyes.

“Enough, I said I didn’t want to ruin the call,” Mal said. “How’s Gil? You guys having fun?”

“Yeah, I made the right call with this gap year,” Jay said. “I’m glad I’m out here with him. And It’s nice seeing Lonnie, too.”

“I miss that girl,” Mal sighed. “I hate growing up, let’s go back to high school forever.”

“Sure, Mal,” Jay grinned. They said good bye after that and Jay returned to bed, to Gil. Talking about Carlos had shaken him a bit, but when Gil nuzzled his nose into Jay’s neck, kissing lightly there, he forgot about him easily. Happy just to be with Gil.

-

Agrabah was terrifying and wonderful and Jay felt the oddest feeling when they got there. Like he’d been there before while also struck by how unfamiliar the whole place was. It was hot, a desert as he’d always known. He and Gil were staying with Reza, a VK who had immediately moved to Agrabah with his father once the barrier was down. Apparently just assisting Jay’s father wasn’t enough of a crime to have people that concerned with you after over twenty years had gone by. They had family there, as well, which they were staying with. A humble but spacious abode not too far from the capital city.

“Salutations,” Reza had greeted them when they arrived, parking the car out front. As obnoxious as ever.

“Hey,” Jay had said, while Gil asked what he meant by ‘salad station,’ which Jay thought was a fair question.

It was different from Lonnie’s house. Reza’s aunt, who owned the house, didn’t seem to like Jay, although Gil’s charm worked on her as usual she sniffed at any attempt at conversation Jay made. Jay guessed she blamed his father for her brother’s imprisonment, which meant, as usual, she blamed Jay himself. 

Jay and Gil slept in the living room, Gil on the couch and Jay on the ground. They stayed up late whispering to each other, holding hands. Gil leaned over at one point and kissed Jay. It was kind of like an Auradon sleepover.

Their first full day in Agrabah they went to the capital and visited the Sultan’s palace, from what Jay decided was a respectable distance.

“Aren’t you friends with the prince?” Gil asked, taking a picture. “Shouldn’t we go say hi or something?”

“I’m not really _friends_ with Aziz… He was more so just a teammate,” Jay said. “We didn’t really get along. He was more friends with Carlos.”

Gil nodded. “Hey, let me take a picture of you, with the palace in the back,” he said, after he did he looked at it and laughed. “You know, if your dad had succeeded in his evil plan you would’ve grown up here, and been a prince.” Gil looked at him shyly now, “I think you’d be a pretty good prince.”

“Uh, I don’t know,” Jay laughed awkwardly. He looked at the picture, it had a weird effect to it. Jay in the desert, in front of the palace his father had tried to take.

“You’re handsome and nice and good,” Gil said simply. “That’s all the best prince features.”

“I would’ve been an evil prince, though, because my dad was an evil sultan,” Jay said.

“That’s kind of cool, too,” Gil said, eyes glinting and Jay laughed.

“Stop fucking with me,” he said, shoving Gil and Gil laughed, too.

They found an ad for cooking classes online this time, while Jay was scrolling through apps on his phone over dinner at a tiny hole in the wall restaurant. They registered without fact checking it at all, grinning.

“Wait—What did you just put down for your name?” Jay asked, leaning over the table to look at Gil’s phone.

“My name,” Gil said, he showed Jay his phone and the form that was filled out with First Name: Gaston, Last Name: LeGume, Suffix: IV.

“Your name is not _Gaston_ ,” Jay said, incredulous .

“Uh, yeah, my dad named all his kids after him,” Gil said. “Harry and Uma said I deserved my own name, though, so they’ve always called me Gil. Like a fish, since we’re pirates.” Gil grinned. “At school teachers and all the non-pirates called me Gaston, though.”

“That’s awful,” Jay said, he grabbed Gil’s phone and erased the first name and suffix fields, putting Gil in their place. “You’re Gil LeGume, the first.”

“Well, put the suffix in there, then,” Gil said, snatching his phone back and adding ‘I’ in the suffix section. Jay laughed and Gil looked at his phone with a smile.

Jay filled out his application with First Name: Jay, Last Name: X as he usually did. He still hadn’t asked his dad if he had a last name, which was an oversight he guessed but he was also okay with it. He was just Jay, son of Jafar.

The cooking class ended up being so much fun, even if most everyone treated Jay about as well as Aziz had when he’d first arrived to Auradon. Gil charmed them all so that maybe they treated Jay closer to how he was more recently treated by Aziz. Which was all Jay really felt he could ask for. Sure they seemed a bit suspicious, but he was with Gil: all sunshine and warmth and enthusiasm for the food. Jay was full of awe and enthusiasm as well as they learned about Agrabah cuisine, techniques, spices, new words. 

He wanted to go home and tell his dad about it all, even though his father had been there. Had grown up there. Jay would’ve, too, if things hadn’t gone the way they had.

One night, they walked back through the city to Reza’s Aunt’s home. Holding hands. Jay looked up at the sky, full of bright shining stars.

“I think I want to live here,” he said.

“Yeah?” Gil asked.

“Yeah. It feels right… Even though I don’t really feel welcome… I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be,” Jay said. Gil squeezed his hand.

“Then you’ll make it happen,” he said. “That’s how you are.”

Jay smiled at Gil. He didn’t know how Gil could make him feel so seen and understood after only so many months together. He filled his heart, though, warmed him from the inside out. Jay pulled him close and kissed him.

“I think I could be falling in love with you,” Jay said, and Gil beamed. Jay wanted to save this moment forever, save this feeling forever.


	15. Fifteen

Jay didn’t think of Carlos much for the whole year of traveling. Just when he’d appear in the background of Evie’s snaps or one of Ben’s instagram story updates, and once when Reza had asked how he was doing. He thought this meant he was over him, as he let Gil and his warmth and affection consume him as they made their way through the rest of Auradon. They were headed into heavily forested areas, where they camped and hiked and tried their hands at fishing. They visited Norte Dame which was different and exciting. They swam in rivers and went on boat tours, got lost in the woods of Farway Cove, and Jay didn’t think about Carlos for a second of it.

It was nice, after his past attempts at moving on had involved a large amount of thinking about Carlos. 

Him and Gil were in their own world, though, full of each other.

Looking back Jay could probably see that that might be the key sustaining feature of their relationship, as good as it felt at the time. 

They returned to Auradon City ten months after they’d left, in June, shortly before the wedding. Jay had a fitting with Evie scheduled promptly for early in the morning the day after his return for his ‘bridesman’ suit.

When he drove up to Evie’s castle, she was already waiting outside for him. It was getting late, the sun mostly set, sinking down into the waterline on the horizon.

“You guys took your sweet time,” Evie said, shaking her head.

“What can we say, we were enjoying ourselves!” Jay said, walking up to Evie and enveloping her in a hug.

“Uhg, that’s why you left me with all of ‘helping Mal not freak out over her _wedding_ ’ duties until literally just two days until the wedding?” Evie said, but she hugged him back before pulling away and giving Gil a hug with a “hi!”.

“Hey, Eves,” Gil yawned. “I’m so tired, is it okay if we just go to bed? Let’s catch up in the morning.”

“Fine, fine,” Evie said. She led them inside, and while Gil collapsed immediately onto Jay’s bed when they got to his room, Evie held Jay back. She smiled up at him, and it was surreal to be with her again. She reached up and tucked a stray lock of hair behind Jay’s ear. “I missed you,” she said. “We all did. It’s nice to have you back.”

“I’m glad to be back,” Jay said.

“Only for a couple months, though, then out to Sherwood Forest,” Evie pouted.

“Let’s just enjoy this while it lasts, right?” Jay said, and Evie chuckled and nodded.

“Fine, now go sleep, remember: your fitting is at 8AM, and if you’re up, I’ll probably go for a run at 6,” Evie and said Jay gave her a little salute before heading to bed with Gil.

Gil curled up against him, stripped down to his tee shirt and boxers. “I don’t want you to leave,” Gil breathed warm against his neck. “Don’t go to college.”

Jay chuckled, kissing the top of Gil’s head. “We’re back in the real world, now,” he said simply.

-

Jay did get up at 6 to run with Evie. Then there was breakfast, made by Gil and Dizzy, who was staying at Evie’s over the summer for some sort of summer program at Auradon Prep. Jay realized the castle must have felt pretty empty with just Evie over the school year. No wonder she always seemed to be at Carlos’s dorm in her snaps. It struck Jay suddenly that Carlos wasn’t there, even though surely he wasn’t staying at the dorms over the summer.

He felt awkward asking about Carlos, though, so he didn’t.

There was the fitting, Jay’s royal blue velvet suit was nice, and Evie already knew his measurements by heart so the fitting went by quickly. Dizzy and Gil sat in on the fitting, goofing off in the corner.

“How are you wearing your hair?” Evie asked after the fitting portion was done and she immediately went to work on the adjustments the suit jacket and vest needed.

“Up, I guess? That’s how I usually wear it to events like this,” Jay said.

“There’s never been an event like this, Jay,” Evie said, and Jay realized how tired she looked. He actually did feel bad for leaving her to handle the whole thing by herself. Sure, she was part of a team of people helping out with the wedding, but she was also Mal’s maid of honor and was taking care of the whole wedding party’s outfits.

Jay went to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of a car coming down the drive. He looked over his shoulder, through big glass windows of Evie’s studio, seeing a sleek looking purple car come up the driveway.

“Mal?” Jay said, and sure enough it was Mal who got out of the car. Jay didn’t even hesitate before running to her, bursting through the outside door to the studio and practically tackling Mal down in his rush to hug her.

She yelped in surprise, before laughing. “Missed me?” she said, and Jay pulled back and grinned at her, so wide.

“So fucking much! I didn’t think I’d get to see you until tomorrow!” Jay said, reaching out and running a hand through Mal’s hair in disbelief.

“Surprise,” Mal said, shaking her head. She gestured over her shoulder. “My dad needed to pick up his suit—so I decided to sneak away.”

Jay saw Hades had got out of the car on the other side. “Hey, there,” he said, offering Jay a little wave. Jay nodded at him.

“Jay!” Evie was calling. “Get back inside before you ruin those pants!” she said, as he still wore the suit pants. He rolled his eyes, but made his way back to the studio, holding Mal’s hand in his. Evie shoved Jay into the little divided changing area of the studio when he got in, demanding he change back into his jeans. When he returned she was talking to Mal. “We were trying to decide how Jay should wear his hair tomorrow,” she said.

Mal frowned at Jay, considering. She was sitting on Evie’s sewing table, swinging her legs a little as Evie was handing a garment bag off to her dad. She didn’t look much different from the last time Jay had seen her. She had her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, it looked like it might be longer but the color was the same purple-blue it had been when he’d left. “Wear it down,” Mal said. “You never do that to events like this.”

“Evie did say there’s never been an event like this,” Jay said. Dizzy jumped up, going over to Jay and touching a piece of his hair.

“If you’re going to wear it down you need a trim,” she said, shaking her head. “You can _not_ go to a royal wedding with split ends like these!”

“That’s what I’ve been telling him his whole life,” Evie sighed and Jay laughed.

“You know what, Dizz, you can do it,” Jay said. His hair was becoming a bit of a mess, especially after a year without Evie to give him any hair interventions which never involved a trim but always involved a deep conditioning treatment.

Evie gave a mock gasp. “Dizzy! This is a historic moment!” she said. “Someone take a picture!”

“Oh! I will!” Gil pulled out his phone to take a picture, and Jay laughed. It was a bright and sunny morning, Jay was surrounded by some of his favorite people. The picture was good, Jay stared at it for a long time later when Gil posted it on his instagram, next to a picture of Dizzy trimming Jay’s hair that he’d taken later. He was laughing, Dizzy was still frowning at his hair, and Evie was just glowing with mischief. Mal was smiling at them fondly. Gil had captioned it “a historic occasion! jay got a haircut!” and a string of emojis including the haircut emoji, a shocked face, and a sun.

Mal and Hades had left before Jay could get his hair cut, Mal saying regretfully she had a lot to do that day. Jay hugged her tight, not wanting to let her go.

After the trim, Gil wouldn’t stop running his hands through Jay’s hair. “It’s so… Smooth now. No tangles,” Gil said. It was, admittedly, nice. It was a lot shorter, though, still brushing past his shoulders but not much longer. Gil looked over at Dizzy and asked if she could do his, and she did, even as Jay warned her to not make it too short. She didn’t, thankfully, taking off much less length than she had with Jay.

He looked good, and happy, running his fingers through his own hair now as he looked in the mirror, thanking Dizzy a bunch. Jay stepped behind Gil, wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his cheek on his shoulder.

“Yeah, thanks, Dizz. We appreciate it,” he said.

“Of course! I’m happy to do anything for the wedding!” Dizzy said, cheerfully. “I can’t believe I’m going to a real royal wedding!”

Jay was happy for her, happy that they were all getting to experience this. Mal was getting married in just one day… It was hard to believe it himself. He wondered if Evie and Doug would get married soon after, if Jane and… Jay shook his head, which made Gil laugh even though he didn’t know why. Jay let Gil pull him from his thoughts as he asked how he should wear his hair for the wedding.

-

Mal was beautiful in her wedding dress.

She was standing in front of a mirror, Evie jumping around the room helping her out. A photographer was there, taking pictures, along with someone to do their makeup, but otherwise it was just Jay and Evie. And Mal was looking at the mirror, staring at herself. Evie had made her a wonderful dress, traditional and cream colored, with a simple silhouette for the main dress but with a dramatic cape on the back, fanned out behind her, covered in small feathers. 

It suited her, and she stared at herself curiously like she thought so, too. Her hair was down, a gold tiara on her head. She reached up to smooth her hair a bit, a gold dragon bracelet winding up her arm.

“You are so unbelievably beautiful,” Evie said, finally done adjusting the flower girl’s dress. The flower girl was someone related to Benin some way, a young girl who stared at Mal with eyes wide with awe.

“You’re right,” Mal said, shaking her head. She laughed, breathless. “I kind of am.”

“You absolutely are,” Jay said.

“We need the father of the bride for some pictures,” the photographer said. “Where is he?”

“Probably somewhere freaking out,” Mal rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why he said he wanted to do this, he’s been more of a mess than I have.”

Evie bit her lip.

“I’ll go find him,” Jay said, standing up. “He can’t be far, I’m sure he’s not trying to desert you.”

“He better not,” Mal said, frowning.

“No frowning!” Evie insisted. “It’s your wedding day!” Which did succeed in making Mal smile a little.

Jay left the room. They were in the sprawling palace that was the Royal Castle, Mal’s home now. He’d seen Hades earlier, when they’d had their own little hair and makeup party before Jay was ushered away to go be photographed getting ready with the rest of the bridal party. Auradon was still weird about gendered stuff like that.

Before Jay could make it to Hades he was distracted by something. Someone.

Carlos.

He saw him first, down the hall, Jane by his side, talking to him animatedly. Jay froze, and Carlos did, too, when he looked in front of himself and saw Jay. He looked like a deer caught in headlights, mouth falling open a little.

“Jay!” It was Jane who said his name. Jay dragged his gaze from Carlos and greeted her with a strained smile.

“Hey, Jane,” he said. “I wondered when I’d see you around here, I knew you’d be helping out with everything.”

Jane grinned. “As always,” she said. “Carlos and I were actually just running to grab these,” she held up a little box, “cufflinks! Ben completely forgot them; they’re the same ones his dad wore when he got married.” Jane sighed dreamily. “It’s all so classic, yet not at all! I mean, look at you, a guy in the bridal party! And a villain walking the soon-to-be queen down the aisle!” Jane shook her head with a giggle. Her phone rang, and she picked it up. “Oh—Mom, okay. Okay, I’m coming!” She hung up her phone. “And lots to do, as usual! I’ll see you guys later, and it’s so nice to see you again, Jay!” She kissed Carlos on the cheek and gave Jay a quick hug before running off down the hallway.

“She can really go on and on when she’s like this, huh,” Jay said with a chuckle, watching after her.

“Yeah,” Carlos said, but his voice was weak. Jay turned to look at him, and tried to offer him a smile but. It was all wrong. Carlos didn’t run up to hug him like any of their other friends had, he didn’t say his name he just. Stood there. He didn’t smile. Because Jay had told Carlos how he felt and Carlos hadn’t done anything then, either, and then Jay left for a year and didn’t even try to contact him. Carlos hadn’t really tried, either.

It was all so wrong.

Because Carlos looked tired, but he looked good, too. His hair was neatly styled, he looked like a prince himself in his own velvet suit. It was a different cut from Jay’s, but it probably matched the other men in the groom’s party. It was all wrong because Jay thought he had gotten over him but instead he saw him and felt like the ground had fallen beneath him, like he was plunging into darkness and all he knew was his longing for Carlos again. He wanted to know everything he’d missed, he wanted to know why Carlos looked so tired, he wanted to reach out and pull him against his chest, run his hands through his hair, even though it would make it a mess. He wanted to sit on the ground with Carlos and just talk like they used to, shoulders pressed up against each other.

It struck Jay like a bullet to his heart, as they stood there awkwardly unsure of how to act around each other anymore, after the revelations, distance, and time… Jay’s fears had become reality. They were barely friends anymore, hadn’t talked for nearly a year. And Jay still wanted all of him. And he didn’t even have that.

“Oh, uh, I should be getting back to Ben,” Carlos said, face turning pink. “The cuff links.”

“Okay,” Jay said, struggling to muster up a smile. Carlos swept past him, and Jay couldn’t help himself, it was like an instinct. He grabbed Carlos’s arm.

Carlos stopped. He looked up at Jay, expression carefully trained into a straight face.

“I just,” Jay said, letting him go and stepping back. “I missed you.”

Carlos offered him a smile, now, finally, but it was… Complicated. Hard to read. “You too, Jay.”

Carlos left, Jay found Hades where he’d been left earlier. He was kind of freaking out, like Mal had predicted, pacing the room. Jay brought him back for photographs.

The wedding went on, Jay pushed the weird interaction with Carlos out of his mind. When he saw Carlos later it seemed Carlos was doing the same, giving Jay a hug before the ceremony and telling him he was glad to see him. It felt a bit rehearsed, but Jay ignored that.

It was a beautiful day, though. Mal and Ben were married, the reception was nice, and the intimate after event at Evie’s was even better.

Ben and Mal were off on their honeymoon the next morning, Jay hugging Mal tight before she left.

“I can’t believe I get back and you’re leaving already,” he said and Mal laughed. 

“It’s just a week, when I get back we’re not leaving each other’s side at all, okay!” Mal said, punching him on the shoulder because she was Mal and he was Jay and that’s how they were.

It weighed on Jay, just how much things had changed, though, as Mal left. Mal would be back but then he’d be leaving shortly after, out to Sherwood Forest.

-

Gil was happy to see his friends again, going back to stay with Harry and Uma. He and Jay still saw each other a lot, just like the summer before. Jay stayed with Evie and learned that Carlos was actually staying there, too, for the summer. He was gone a lot, though, as he was taking a couple of summer classes at the college. When Jay did see him, their conversations were awkward and stunted.

And even though Jay was still in love with him, he mostly missed being friends with Carlos. Missed talking to him and being near him. Carlos kept a distance between them now, and Jay could hardly blame him when he’d done it first.

-

Gil and Jay gave it a valiant effort, Jay would insist this fact. Returning to the real world had shifted their relationship, but they wanted it to work. Jay wanted it to work so bad.

Jay went to college in the fall; which kind of sucked. Being at SFU was like starting over again. People gave him weird looks all over campus, there were plenty of whispers about who he was, where he came from, his dad. His teammates on the tourney team treated him like an oddity, even after he proved himself out on the field. He was relieved to see that he was genuinely good at the game, though, not just compared to the less than impressive Auradon Prep Fighting Knights. He wasn’t the best anymore on the SFU team, but he held his own, and it was nice to be on a team with people who he could learn from. He kind of thought they could do with some education themselves, though, with the way some of them snickered when he mentioned having a boyfriend.

Jay loved tourney, though, which was what got him through it. SFU was lonely, there weren’t any VKs there, there weren’t many other kids from Auradon Prep in general, Jay realized. There was one cheerleader, though, who had gone to Auradon Prep and had greeted Jay at his first game.

“Hey, Jay!” she said, ponytail bouncing. She was a princess, his mind supplied, but he couldn’t remember her name or who her parents were. The cheerleaders beside her giggled, though, shaking their head as she talked to him. He remembered she was Rapunzel’s kid, Ruby, and told her about how he’d gone to the lantern festival in Corona the summer before.

“It was really beautiful,” he said, and she beamed at him. He remembered she’d had a big crush on him once, but. Most of the girls had in school so maybe it wasn’t really that notable.

“You should’ve come to the castle!” she said, Jay had appreciated her kindness. He learned she probably appreciated his kindness as well, he’d heard a few snide comments about her royal lineage. SFU was like a completely different world from Auradon Prep in so many ways, but mostly in the way that most of the students didn’t have famous parents. And, well. Jay was from an island which was by definition populated by the famous and famous-adjacent and their kids and then he’d gone to an exclusive prep-school full of kids with famous parents. But the students at SFU were just regular people, and there was a mix of people who turned their nose up at a royal like the princess of Corona, whispering about how stuck up she was, and how sheltered she must be from the real world, and she had a few fans who followed her around a lot.

Jay tried to reach out to her at the start of the semester, even though they were in different majors and didn’t see each other often, but he started to think he might be making it worse for her when her fans would give her worried glances and the whisperers would laugh and shake their heads. So he gave her space, but they smiled at each other when they crossed paths.

Gil came up to visit whenever he could, he was trying to figure out what the real world meant for him. Him, Harry, and Uma were all staying together, Jay assumed on the ship. He knew Uma was staying politically involved and Gil was helping her out, from what he told him whenever he came up for the weekends. He said he missed traveling, though, and was looking into what he could do with that. His instagram was actually stupid popular and Evie was helping him work on building that into some sort of social media career. It suited him, Jay thought.

Jay had a single room, even though he didn’t request it. He could put that together easily, though. It was weird being alone at night, used to having his father in the other room or Carlos in the next bed over or Gil curled up right beside him. He had a hard time falling asleep like that. Gil noted how tired he looked whenever he came over, usually dragging him to bed and telling him it was nap time. Jay didn’t like wasting their time together like that but… He was tired, and Gil was always so warm and comforting. He’d always sleep easily.

They did work well together during those moments, alone in Jay’s dorm room, eating food from the dining hall on the floor while they watched a movie on Jay’s laptop. Jay would lean his head on Gil’s shoulder and wish the weekend would never end.

But time went on.

Jay would get more accepted on campus as his first semester wore on and he proved himself at tourney. He was good, and people had to accept that. He started to get invited along to things with some of his teammates, including a college party which was an invitation he had half the mind to turn down but. He did love parties. So he went. And it was fine, Ruby was there and the tourney guys were kind of fun. As the fall semester came to a close things were looking up. Even if he was still pretty lonely and Gil was planning a trip for the next year that would keep him away for longer and Jay felt this overwhelming apprehension regarding going back to Auradon City.

Winter break came, Jay and Gil made plans to go back to Agrabah for a week. Jay visited his dad after, with gifts, even though it wasn’t like they celebrated Christmas or anything. It was nice, spending time with his father. He hadn’t seen him since Mal’s wedding, and he’d only seen him shortly then. It was nice to tell him about how school was going, hear about the going ons on the isle. His father had stopped running the shop mostly, Jay sent him money whenever he could. He would still run the marketplace stall when the weather was nice, but he said it was somehow more competitive now that there were more legitimate wares involved.

VKs were given allowances from the royal family for a certain amount of time, Jay and the other original four VKs had been promised to receive it monthly it until they were 21, but Gil had told him he’d only been promised it for a year, but he’d been given more money upfront. Those under 18 were just promised it until they turned 18 or graduated from Auradon Prep. The villains on the isle hadn’t been given anything. Plenty had kids who would help them with things like food, and Jafar told Jay that absurdly enough, neighbors helped neighbors. Jay had asked Carlos once if he had sent his mother anything and Carlos had shook his head with a bit of a laugh and explained Cruella had plenty of money, hidden in safes around Hell Hall.

Jay felt better when the spring semester came. Campus was starting to feel a bit more like home, even if it was a lonely home. He still didn’t really have friends, and Gil was on a long trip. He’d visited Jay before he left and Jay made him stay up all night with him on the last night because he didn’t want it to end. It was going to be three months until they saw each other again. So they snuck up to the roof of Jay’s dorm and sat out there to watch the sunrise. Jay kissed him and it was sad. He’d never had a sad kiss with Gil before. When Gill pulled away he was frowning.

“It’s gonna be okay, Jay, ” he said, his hand in his hair. “It’ll be summer again before you know it.”

They were planning on traveling together again in the summer.

“I’m just gonna miss these weekends together,” Jay said. “It just gets lonely out here.” Gil nodded, kissing him again.

“I’m gonna miss you, too,” he said.

And the sun rose, as much as Jay didn’t want it to. They got breakfast and then Gil was gone.

-

A few weeks into the spring semester Mal called him. “Jay, are you and Carlos even friends anymore?” she said in lieu of any actual greeting.

“Um, what?” Jay asked. He was walking to his first class of the day. He saw someone he knew from tourney across the lawn and waved at them as Mal continued.

“I just asked him if he’d heard from you and he gave me this weird look and said that you guys didn’t really talk these days,” Mal said. She sounded mad.

“I—“ Jay tried to counter, but Mal kept going.

“So I said, ‘wait really? Not at all?’ and Carlos tells me you never responded to his texts so he just stopped trying!” Mal said. “Even though you told me that Carlos just hadn’t texted you since you started school.”

“He hasn’t!” Jay said. “I didn’t lie. He texted me back during my gap year, while I was in the mountains. I didn’t have any service, okay? When we got back to civilization I just… Thought it was too late to respond.”

“And so you just haven’t talked to him since?” Mal said, incredulous.

“I talked to him at the wedding,” Jay said weakly.

Mal let out an audibly annoyed breath. “Jay, what the hell is going on?”

Jay bit his lip, irritated that she sounded so annoyed over the whole thing. It was her fault, after all. “Exactly what I told you would go on,” he answered her, trying to keep his voice level. “I told Carlos how I felt and now we’re not friends.”

“That’s not right and you know it,” Mal said. “Fix this, Jay. We’re a family, me, you, Evie, and Carlos. Okay? Your boy drama has done enough damage, so text Carlos.”

“It’s not that simple,” Jay said.

“Yes it is, you guys became friends once you can become friends again. Fix. It!” Mal demanded.

Jay groaned. “You don’t get it, Mal,” he said.

“What I don’t get is why you’re obsessed with being so miserable over this whole thing,” Mal said. “So he turned you down—Aren’t you with Gil now? Isn’t that your whole thing? So move on and just talk to Carlos.”

Jay bristled, but he relented. “Fine, Mal. I’ll text him.”

“Call him sometime, too,” Mal said, before hanging up with him. Jay was standing in the middle of campus now, staring down at his phone, annoyed. He was going to be late for class, probably. A return to isle standards. Whatever.

He pulled up his messaging app, searching Carlos’s name in it. ‘ _hey_ ’ he sent, before shoving his phone in his pocket and running the rest of the way to his class.

-

 _11:23am_ **carlos:**  
Hi?

 _1:34pm_ **jay:**  
sorry i was in class. stupid excuse since i texted you but mal told me to so…... i did.

 _1:35_ **carlos:**  
So you needed mal to tell you to text me.

 _1:37_ **jay:**  
yes because i’m an idiot ok. i’m sorry i didnt text you back before, okay? ive been busy

 _1:37_ **carlos:**  
For the past couple years?

 _1:38_ **jay:**  
honesty? yes.

 _1:39_ **carlos:**  
:/

 _1:42_ **jay:**  
listen i’m really sorry, genuinely. traveling was crazy and then schools been crazy, you wouldn’t believe what it was like out here, nothing like auradon prep. tourneys really hard too, its good but hard.

 _1:52_ **jay:**  
those are excuses tho ig… but they’re good excuses!

 _2:00_ **jay:**  
was that joke in bad taste? are u mad?

 _2:14_ **jay:**  
………………………………….ok i get it but please reply

 _4:02_ **carlos:**  
Sorry, I was in class.

 _4:02_ **jay:**  
you bitch

 _4:03_ **carlos:**  
I forgive you okay. Will you stop ignoring me now?

 _4:05_ **jay:**  
you were the one ignoring me!!!! but yesyesyesyesyes are we friends again

 _4:08_ **carlos:**  
We’ve always been friends idiot.

-

Jay and Carlos texted semi-regularly after that. It was different from before, but Jay was relieved to have Carlos in his life again. He texted him jokes and to ask for help with homework and it felt good. He called him sometimes, in the evening while Carlos studied. They’d stay on the phone for hours, even if most of the airtime was filled with the sound of Carlos typing. Jay liked that, though, it was nostalgic for their time at Auradon prep. He’d fall asleep on the call to it, sometimes. He’d wake up to his phone dead and a string of text messages about how annoying he was when he charged it. They were fond in tone, though. One night, when it was late and he was tired after cramming for an exam, Carlos told Jay he’d just leave the phone on while he slept, too. The slight sound of Jay’s even breathing a comfort to him. He had a single, by request, but sometimes sleeping alone was hard for him, too.

Jay kept in touch with Gil when he could. They video called and texted and Jay sent him endless crying emojis in response to his instagram stories. He really missed him, and it was always hard when they were apart. When they were together it was easy, there was no one else in the whole world, just them and their never ending affection for each other. Jay missed that, having Gil like that. Giving Gil himself like that. The summer couldn’t come soon enough.

Summer came, Jay and Gil traveled together. Camping by new waterfalls, trying new things. It was perfect and Gil was really coming into himself after solo traveling the spring before. His photography was even better, too, he’d invested in a nice camera and he looked like a real professional out there. And he was so happy, which made Jay happy, too. Jay kissed him every chance he got.

Then it was back to fall, back to SFU, back to tourney. Back to only spare moments with Gil. Back to falling asleep to the sound of Carlos’s keyboard. Back to trying not to rock the boat all over again, even if he wasn’t trying to deny who he was anymore. He didn’t stop himself from kissing Gil in front of the whole team when he’d surprised him by showing up during practice one day, but he wasn’t going out of his way to talk about his history on the isle. 

There was a big game and a party in the fall that Gil couldn’t make it to, but the rest of his friends had come up for it. Carlos was there. He looked good, of course. He always looked good, and Jay always noticed it. At this point it was just something to live with. It was kind of his first time really seeing Carlos after they’d started talking again, and he was worried about how awkward it was. It didn’t really end up being awkward, per se, but… Jay felt an ache inside, over the fact that he’d told Carlos how he felt and was still in the same place. Pretending not to have feelings for him.

He put his arm around him, though. Carlos leaned into it.

Evie gave him a look later during the party. He distracted her with conversation about the two new VKs who had come to the school.

-

“You can’t keep mooning over Carlos,” Evie did say to him later. “Okay?”

“I’m not,” Jay said, quietly. They were in the living room of the cabin, the party had cleared out, almost everyone had gone to bed. Except Jay and Evie who sat on the couch.

“Yes you are, you look like a wounded puppy whenever you look at him,” she said. “That’s usually his schtick.” She shook her head.

“I told him how I felt last summer,” Jay confessed.

“Why would you do that!” Evie hissed.

“Mal told me to, she told me—“

“Mal thinks Carlos is in love with you,” Evie said, shaking her head. Jay bit his lip. “Jay…” Evie leveled him with a look.

“I don’t think he’s in _love_ with me but… I don’t know, Evie. When I told him…” Jay shook his head. “No, you’re right, I’m supposed to be over him. I’m with Gil. I’m happy with Gil.”

Evie nodded slowly. “Yes,” she said. “And Carlos is happy with Jane.”

“Yes,” Jay said.

“So you need to get it together, or else it’s gonna start affecting other things,” Evie said. “Like your relationship with Gil.”

They went to bed shortly after. Jay tried not to think about all of it too much. 

-

There was a group text message from Jane, delivered to him, Evie, and Mal.

‘ _I found cigarettes in the freezer? I’m freaking out what do I do I threw them out but what if someone finds them? Should I talk to Carlos about this? Why is he smoking?_ ’

Jay could barely comprehend the words, reading the text message multiple times before he got a call from Mal.

“Jay, what the fuck is up with Carlos?” Mal demanded right as he picked up the phone.

“I don’t know,” Jay said, shaking his head even though she couldn’t see him.

“He’s been a mess, you haven’t even been here to see it! And now this? Talk to him,” Mal said.

“What am I supposed to say? We don’t talk about serious stuff,” Jay said. “This is… I don’t know anything about this.”

“Is there something going on with him and Jane?” Mal asked.

“He doesn’t talk to me about her,,” Jay said. “I don’t ask about her.”

Mal snorted. “Why did I call you?”

“I don’t know, Mal! I’m as lost as you are,” he said.

“Why would he start smoking? Why would he bring it here?” Mal said.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Jay said. “I mean—obviously his mom got him started but. I don’t think he was smoking before.”

“No way,” Mal said, and she sighed, frustrated. “I just don’t know what to do with him! He doesn’t talk to any of us, really, even Evie has a hard time getting him to open up.”

“He’s not gonna talk to me,” Jay said.

Mal huffed. “Yeah, you’re right. You’re right.”

-

Jay tried to do what Evie said, ‘stop mooning over Carlos.’ Whenever it was just him and Gil it felt easy to ignore his feeling for Carlos, but when it wasn’t. Well. Jay and Gil were really trying to make it work, he said this to himself again and again. But. Time apart wasn’t good for them. When they came back together it was filled with a desperate air. Jay didn’t protest sleeping as much, even though he slept better those days with Carlos’s help. He liked how simple it was, to sleep beside Gil, no talking or weird awkward pauses necessary. He still liked Gil, of course he did. He liked being with him. 

He just missed being with him like he used to, and being friends with Carlos made it… Well, it was Carlos. Jay still had feelings for him and that made it hard.

The storm on the horizon Jay had seen since his gap year had ended was nearing, though.

Jay didn’t know what he did at Evie’s wedding. But it was a turning point. Mal had given him a look at one point, when he thought he’d been innocently talking to Carlos. Maybe there was no innocently talking to Carlos, maybe his feelings were always blatantly written on his face whenever he did. Gil was awkward for the rest of the event, looking a bit confused.

They traveled again that summer, it was nice but it felt like a goodbye tour. There were more sad kisses, and one time when they were in the Scandinavian Mountains, after racing each other up a steep slope, Gil bowled him over with a hug and on the ground he looked down at him with a complicated look on his face.

“I don’t want this to end,” he said. Jay had kissed him, and felt disappointed when it still tasted sad.

“Me neither,” he said, because it was true.

That fall, on the sunday of a weekend visit Jay woke up to see Gil was already awake, sitting up beside him. Gil looked over when he realized Jay was awake. He offered him a weak smile and Jay’s heart broke. This was it, he knew.

“We should break up,” Gil said, quiet. Jay sat up, too.

“Before breakfast?” he said, a sad attempt at a joke. He shook his head. “I want to be with you, Gil.”

“I know,” Gil said, nodding. “I know, I believe you I just…” Gil looked away. “You’re still in love with Carlos.”

Jay really respected how Gil actually said what he thought, even if it hurt. “But I like you.”

Gil sighed. “And I want that to be enough, I tried to be okay with that… Because Carlos is with Jane, you know? But… What if he wasn’t?” Gil stared down at his hands. “What if he walked through the door right now and said they’d broken up and he wanted to be with you.”

Jay stared at Gil, and Gil glanced up at him. Gil’s expression said everything. “I’m sorry,” Jay said. “I—“

“I know,” Gil said. His voice was so small, his shoulders hunched. He was trembling a bit. “I’m glad we were together… You made me really happy, Jay. I just… I want to do what’s best for me.”

“Okay,” Jay said. “Okay.”

“I think it’s best for both of us,” Gil said. And he was probably right but Jay didn’t want him to be. Jay wanted him to be wrong, he wanted to not have a single feeling left for Carlos, he wanted it to not be so fucking obvious that Gil could see it even when Jay had tried so hard to put distance between himself and Carlos. He wanted to be in love with Gil.

Gil kissed him one last time before he left, and Jay felt like he could choke on the sadness of it. When he was gone Jay ran a hand through his hair, pulling when his fingers got caught in a tangle. He swore, eyes stinging. He swore again, louder, rubbing his eyes. His chest hurt, and he wondered if this was actually what his father had warned him about when he’d told him as a child to not get his heart involved in anything, ever.


	16. Sixteen

Jay’s dad got sick, then he got sicker. He saw Carlos on the isle that summer. Asked him about marriage and Jane.

He graduated MVP, after four years of hard work. He told his dad, who was pale and gaunt and sick and Auradon doctors didn’t want to help him. His dad said he was proud of him and Jay smiled at him and then cried when he left the room. He was angry, frustrated.

Jay formulated a plan, made a petition, got signatures from his dad’s friends on the isle.

Mal texted him, ‘ _are you coming to the committee meeting this weekend?_ ’

‘ _yeah_ ,’ he’d texted back.

He got a text from Carlos with a picture of a ring. Jay congratulated him, even as his ears rang and he felt nauseous.

‘nvm i cant, dad is doing really bad,’ Jay sent to Mal quickly after.

‘ _ok :( i get it. lmk if theres anything i can do, i know how stubborn our parents can be_ ,’ Mal texted back.

A few hours later she texted again, ‘ _coward coward coward fuck you jay!!!!!!!!!!_ ’

Then, ‘ _i told him not to do it. you and evie might want to stand around while he ruins his fucking life AND jane’s but i’m fucking tired of it. years of this shit. fuck._ ’

Jay ended up going to the committee meeting.

-

Carlos and Jane broke up. Jay felt like he’d been struck by lightning with the news, shocked. He didn’t know what to do with this development that he genuinely hadn’t seen coming. He really thought Carlos and Jane would get married.

He was worried about him, he went to see him at Evie’s. He was smoking. Jay didn’t really feel too surprised.

Mal texted him a week after, ‘if you don’t make a move i’m actually going to kill you.’ And Jay had laughed so loud he’d scared Iago. The shocked kind of laugh that didn’t indicate humor, but just disbelief at the entire situation.

So he invited Carlos to dinner, eventually. Even though it seemed like not enough time had passed, and felt a bit awkward. He wanted to see Carlos again.

Carlos kissed like he was terrified. Jay felt broken by it. He’d wanted to kiss Carlos for what felt like his whole life but it was nothing like he expected, it wasn’t the sure and strong embrace he’d imagined with Carlos. It didn’t contain the happy glow of his smile, or the exciting thrill of Carlos’s laugh. It terrified him how fragile it felt, how Carlos felt like a fractured piece of poorly made pottery. Jay tried to kiss him back together, back to wholeness, kissing down his neck and pulling him close in an attempt to keep him together.

Carlos ran.

Jay felt like he’d never stop chasing after Carlos. Always two steps behind, reaching for him desperately.

-

Lonnie was bright as ever at Jane’s birthday party. She gave him a look when she saw him, though. He’d texted her about what had happened with Carlos when he’d invited him for dinner.

“Glad you didn’t chicken out,” she said when it was just the two of them.

“I think I’m really only making Jane’s party worse, though,” Jay sighed. “Which is why I _should’ve_ just chickened out. You could’ve just come to visit me.” Lonnie stuck her tongue out at him.

“Jane is your friend, too,” she said. “She wants to see you.”

Jay sighed, nodding. He saw Jane and Carlos leaving the house, she looked like she was feeling better. Jay thought of what Lonnie had just said, Jane was his friend. When he got his first chance he pulled her aside to apologize.

“Hey, sorry about earlier,” he said. “It’s your day, I should’ve known that conversation was leading nowhere.”

She smiled at him. “Don’t even worry about it, Audrey was the one trying to provoke something.” Jane rolled her eyes.

Jay chuckled, nodding. “Yeah… Why’d you invite her?”

“She tries, you know?” Jane said. “We all deserve second chances, right?”

“You’re too good, Jane,” Jay laughed and Jane beamed. “Hey, I’m here for you by the way? With everything.”

Jane’s smile faltered into a smaller but still genuine smile. “Thanks, Jay,” she said. Then she hesitated, looking past him. He looked over and saw Carlos talking with Evie.

“What’s up?” Jay asked.

“I… Did you know?” she said, quiet.

“Did I know what?” Jay said.

“That Carlos was gay,” Jane said, looking embarrassed. “Like… Did you know before this?”

“No,” Jay said, honestly. He’d guessed Carlos had feelings for him, but he always thought he must have had feelings for Jane, too… More feelings, even. “Why?”

Jane sighed. “I just feel so stupid because—uhg,” Jane’s cheeks were bright pink. “My mom, when I went to her after we broke up, she had this look on her face like she always knew. And, like, others have given me the same look. I called Mal after and she was just completely silent on the line for twenty whole seconds, and I knew she knew. It feels like some cruel joke that everyone’s been waiting to spring on me. Like, ‘ha-ha, Jane, you’ve been wasting your time dating a gay guy and we all knew, gotcha!’”

Jay felt bad for her in that moment. “Hey, come on. You loved him, and he cares about you so much,” Jay said. “You guys were happy, you had no reason to worry.”

“He wasn’t always happy,” Jane shook her head. “You know, there were the…” Her voice trailed off and she gave Jay a significant look. Jay nodded. He tried not to think about Carlos smoking on his steps moments after they’d kissed. The parallels.

“He did care about you, though,” Jay said.

“You’re right… And you’re like his best friend and you didn’t know,” Jane said. “So. If I’m an idiot you are, too.” Jay laughed.

“And you wouldn’t call me an idiot, right?” Jay said, nudging her.

“Oh, of course not!” Jane said. Jay smiled at her, even though he felt a bit weird that she didn’t know he and Carlos had kissed—what was he supposed to do? Tell her? Absolutely not. 

So he just tried to enjoy the rest of the party.

-

They went back to the isle all together for the first time since before Jay had gone on his gap year. He got drunk and kissed Carlos and told him he loved him and he loved him so fucking much and he needed him. God he needed him. He touched him, held him. It wasn’t enough, it would never be enough, he thought.

Carlos agreed to try this out, this thing. Jay felt both light as air and heavy like he was sinking.

His dad was admitted into a hospital and it was a circus and Jay just wanted his dad to be OK.

Being with Carlos was like a dream, but not in a good way. In a way like he felt hazy when they touched, and he didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. And that odd feeling where he could tell something wasn’t right, something’s missing; but he couldn’t put his finger on it and so he ignored it. Focusing on the immediate sensations, but even those where dream-like, unsubstantial. Fake, maybe.

Jay kissed Carlos when he didn’t know what to say. So he kissed him a lot. Carlos still kissed like he was scared and lost and fragile. Jay couldn’t fix him but he still tried, with his hands tangled in Carlos’s hair, his lips on his throat while Carlos let out breathy gasps that overwhelmed him. He wanted to wake up and find Carlos made whole, golden and glowing again, by Jay’s side real and alive and awake like he would be, too.

He pretended to be asleep when Carlos slipped out of the room to smoke.

Until Carlos didn’t have any cigarettes left, and he was sick then, too, on top of it all. And it all came to a head over the stupid tourney team Jay had signed to. He’d only gotten three offers: a ridiculous lowball from the Camelot Lancers, a once great team before Sherwood Forest got their own team, Summerlands and. Northern Wei. The offer had come late from them, but it was the best he’d got. Actually, it was a good offer for a good team. But it would mean moving all the way out to Northern Wei, and even though Lonnie was out there. 

Carlos wasn’t.

So he’d signed to Summerlands.

And then he and Carlos got into an argument, with the car pulled over to the side of the road. And Jay felt like he was jolted awake, pulled from the dream state of his life and into the harsh waters of reality. And he thought then that maybe the dream had been a good one after all, because now things just hurt because he and Carlos just weren’t working like he wanted them to. Like he thought they would. He didn’t know what to do with that as Jay looked at him with those big pleading eyes full of disappointment and. Something.

“I don’t know what to do about it,” Jay said, telling Carlos the truth for once in his life.

“What am I supposed to do about that?” Carlos said, weak and sad and frustrated. He shook his head, looking away.

Jay got in the car, Carlos dropped him off at the hospital. Jay didn’t even go to see his father, he just called Mal immediately and asked her to come get him.

-

Mal got Jay from the hospital and brought him back to the castle, she didn’t make him talk on the way back which he was grateful for. He stared out the car window letting the passing scenery blend together, and he could feel her curious glances but she didn’t say anything.

The castle came into view before long. Mal was still a pretty bad driver, Jay thought as she did a fairly shitty park job in front.

“The driver will take care of it,” she said, rolling her eyes as they got out of the car, in response to the look Jay gave her. Jay chuckled under his breath. While so many people thought Mal would have a hard time adjusting to being queen, and maybe the Auradon parts of it had been hard on her, but Jay thought she slipped right into the role of privilege it offered her. As the daughter of Maleficent she’d already been in a similar role on the isle.

She led him to the kitchen, which was huge and ornate like the rest of her castle was. Jay sat on one of the stools by the marble kitchen island while she raided the freezer for ice cream, pulling out two quart containers of it. With a wave of her hand, then, she used magic to open a drawer and two spoons flew to her as she hopped up to sit on the island. She caught them easily and handed one and a carton of ice cream to Jay.

Jay gave her an amused look. “Showing off?” he said.

“It’s just easier,” Mal shrugged. “And if I don’t use my magic enough I feel sick.”

“Oh?” Jay said, opening the chocolate ice cream she’d given him.

“Yeah, like, horrible headaches and shit,” she said, she tilted her head to the side, sizing Jay up for a moment. “You’ve never felt anything like that, huh?”

“My dad used magic, he wasn’t like. Magic himself,” Jay shrugged.

“Wasn’t he a genie?” Mal asked.

“Not anymore, clearly,” Jay said.

Mal nodded. “Jane gets it, though. Since she’s part fairy, too.”

“What? I didn’t know that,” Jay said, stabbing at his ice cream absentmindedly.

“Yeah, I taught her some spells to do her hair every month,” Mal said, shrugging. “It’s why she’s less high strung these days.” 

Jay chuckled, looking down at his ice cream then. “Carlos quit smoking,” he said. “Sounds like it’s kind of like that.”

Mal looked surprised. “Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah, he’s been sick for days, but it was awful today,” Jay said. “I guess he got into a fight with his mom so he didn’t get any and now,” Jay shrugged, “he just doesn’t have any.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Mal said. “How are you guys doing, anyway?”

Jay bit his lip, staring more determinedly at his ice cream as it melted. “I don’t know,” he said. “We went to the Summerlands today, to look at a place.”

“Even though he was sick?” Mal asked.

“Yeah,” Jay said, glancing up. “You know how stubborn and stupid Carlos can be.” Mal nodded and Jay looked away again as he continued, “anyway, he got mad at me for signing onto Summerlands’ tourney team and then we just. Got into it.”

Mal didn’t say anything. She ate a spoonful of her ice cream, looking a bit lost in thought.

“He said I was making stupid decisions because of him, and I just,” Jay rubbed his face with his hands, “I told him everything I do is because of him.”

“Because it’s true,” Mal snorted.

“Mal, come on,” Jay said, but Mal shook her head, setting down her ice cream and scooting closer to Jay. “He was really upset, I don’t know what to do.”

“No, you come on, Jay,” she said. “Did you really think the fact you’ve been obsessed with Carlos since you were twelve wasn’t going to cause problems for you guys if you started dating.”

“Uh, no?” Jay said, genuine.

“Of course not, you probably thought it would benefit it,” Mal said with a laugh, shaking her head. “Have you guys talked about it, about the ten years that led to this?” Jay’s expression must have answered because Mal continued on, “Have you talked about Jane, and why he stayed with her so long? Have you talked about all the boys you saw because of him? Have you talked about why you guys stopped being friends before?”

Jay shrugged and Mal shook her head again.

“But you guys probably fool around a lot, huh?” Mal said, a tad cruel.

“It’s not like that,” Jay retorted.

“It’s exactly like that,” Mal said, her tone growing frustrated. “You have to talk to him, Jay. You can’t just try and dive right into the fantasy relationship with Carlos you had when you were sixteen. Telling him how you feel isn’t just telling him you love him, it’s telling him everything.”

Jay felt frustrated now, too. “It’s not that easy, Mal. I don’t want to overwhelm him—“

“That’s probably exactly what you’re doing. By leaving him in the dark and trying to go back to a past relationship that doesn’t exist,” Mal said. “I tried this once, Jay. I tried to be in a fake made up fantasy and hide my real feelings and it almost lost me everything, because I didn’t trust Ben and I didn’t know what I wanted. I almost lost the isle completely because I was clinging to this Auradon Prep ideal of our lives, so don’t say I don’t get it. Because I know exactly what you’re going through. You have everything you wanted right in front of you but it’s not that simple, it never is.”

“What am I supposed to do, then?” Jay said, throat tight.

“Why do you want to be with him?” Mal asked, answering a question with a question. “And don’t say it’s because he smiled at you when we were kids, because we’re not kids anymore. Why do you want to be with Carlos. Right now.”

Jay let out a long, shaky breath.

-

Carlos texted him at 3:17AM. Jay woke up to the buzz of his phone. He stared at the message for a long time. _‘You haven’t come back. Just let me know you’re safe. Don’t do anything stupid.’_

He sighed.

‘ _i’m ok. sorry that i worried u i’ll see u in the morning ok?_

_also go to sleep it’s 3am idiot_ ’

-

When Mal dropped Jay off at Evie’s in the morning she stopped in as well, heading off towards the kitchen loudly declaring how hungry she was and Evie _better_ have some toaster waffles somewhere. Jay heard Evie laugh from somewhere in the house and say something along the lines of “what are you doing here, Mal?”

Jay went to Carlos’s room.

He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed and surrounded by piles of his clothes, some had been shoved into big plastic bags, and others folded neatly beside him as he worked through the piles. Packing, Jay guessed.

“Hey,” Jay said, and Carlos looked up, surprised.

“Hey,” he repeated back to Jay. His cheeks were flushed a bit, he looked tired. Jay sat on the floor after closing the door behind himself, back pressed against it.

“You get any sleep?” he asked.

“A bit,” Carlos said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Insomnia is another withdrawal symptom so… It’s fine, I’ll be back to normal soon enough.”

Jay nodded, and Carlos went back to sorting his clothes. He wondered if Carlos wanted to pretend nothing had happened. That was a tempting thought, acting as if they were just how they’d been last week. Like Jay could just kiss him and put everything else off until later.

But they couldn’t.

“So we gotta talk,” Jay said, and Carlos tensed.

“Okay,” he said, setting down the shirt he’d been folding. They stared at each other for a moment. Carlos’s expression betrayed his exhaustion and anxiety in the moment.

“First, uh, I’m sorry,” Jay said. “I said we could take this slow and then I kind of feel like. I didn’t do that. So I understand if I overwhelmed you and pushed our relationship farther than you wanted to.”

Carlos kind of shrugged. “It’s not even that, Jay,” he said, voice small. “It feels like we were doing this all wrong, like there isn’t even a real relationship here. Sure, we kiss and shit but. I never know what you’re thinking, you don’t talk to me, and. Yeah.”

“You’re right,” Jay sighed. “It’s hard to tell you how I feel because I just. I’ve been kind of mad at you. I guess.”

Carlos’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “What?”

Jay took a deep breath. “I mean… Come on, Carlos. It kind of hurt when I told you how I felt and you just… Looked like that and then walked away,” Jay said. “Then you barely reached out to me for literally years.”

“I was giving you space,” Carlos said. “And I—I didn’t know what to do about your feelings. Or my feelings. Or any of it. And you _were_ with Gil, and I was with Jane.”

“We could’ve dealt with that then,” Jay said. “Or when I told you not to play around with Jane’s feelings! You could’ve done something then, Carlos.”

“I wasn’t ready,” Carlos said, and Jay nodded.

“But you knew,” he said with a derisive laugh. “I get you weren’t ready, and obviously I know how hard it is to be different and have to face the potential judgement from people but that’s _Jane_ , Carlos! She’s our friend and you lead her on for years even though I told you not to mess around with her feelings and that kind of sucks.”

“It wasn’t that easy, Jay, you don’t understand like you think you do,” Carlos said, shaking his head furiously. “I’m not you. I didn’t want to be gay, I wanted to be with Jane, I wanted to marry her and have our wonderful picture perfect Auradon life together, and be accepted like that. I was never accepted on the isle, Jay, I wanted it to be different here.”

Carlos’s expression was pained, his hands curled up into fists on the floor by his side. Jay didn’t get it, he was right. Jay had never had a problem with being gay, except when he was afraid it would hurt their place in Auradon. He’d never wanted to be with a girl, he’d never seen a future with one. He didn’t know what it would be like, to want to change who you were.

“I wasn’t trying to lead Jane on,” Carlos said. “I thought I could be with her. That it would be enough to want to, that it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t have those feelings for her. So when I did have those feelings for you… I pushed them away, and that was me trying to do what you asked me.”

“I never thought of it that way,” Jay said.

“Well. That’s how it was,” Carlos said, he had relaxed a bit. His shoulders were still tense, but his posture less rigid. “If you knew, and you thought I was leading Jane on, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t know,” Jay clarified. “At least, I didn’t know that you were gay. I thought you were bi, or something. I knew you liked me because, well. I saw it in your face when I told you how I felt.”

“Mal was the only one who figured it out,” Carlos snorted.

“Yeah…” Jay said, a small smile twitching at his lips. Carlos smiled at him, a small smile, full of apprehension but it was a smile nonetheless. Jay wanted to reach out and pull him close, but there was still more to be said, he knew.

“I was mad that you left me behind,” Carlos said after a while. “That you told me that and then went off with Gil on your gap year and you didn’t contact me even once, even when I contacted you… That really pissed me off, Jay. Looking back I get it, because I did leave you hanging like that, but back then I just felt so abandoned and heartbroken. Then we weren’t friends and I hated that so much. That’s when I started smoking, to distract myself from how horrible everything was without you.”

“So you made it worse?” Jay said with a raised brow. Carlos huffed out a little laugh, running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, I guess I did,” he said. “Listen… I am sorry, for how long it took me to figure my shit out. I’m sorry Jane got hurt because of me, and I’m sorry that I hurt you, too.”

“I’m sorry for not calling, I could’ve reached out,” Jay said, picking at the hem of his jeans.

Carlos shrugged. “I could’ve tried more than just the one time. We both stopped talking to each other,” he said. “We never really started talking again, either. Like this. About real stuff.”

Jay nodded. “I miss it,” he said.

Carlos gave him another smile, there was hope blooming in his eyes, behind all of the worry and fear. “What do we do now?”

Jay contemplated that. He’d thought a lot since the night before, about what Mal had asked him. Why did he want to be with Carlos? After all this time. His mind had swam at the question, unsure of how to answer it. It was the most important thing, though, right then. What did he want from Carlos, why did he want it. Jay got up and moved to sit by Carlos, close to his side. Carlos stared at him, waiting.

“I fell for you first back in the sixth grade,” Jay said. “Do you remember when we were doing chasing-and-running-away practice and I let you catch me?”

Carlos frowned, thinking for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I guess?”

“You smiled and I thought that it was the best thing in the whole world,” Jay said, leaning his head back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “It was all I cared about, was seeing that smile. Even when my father told me that the tight-chested lightning feeling it gave me was a weakness… I dreamed about it.”

“Oh,” Carlos said, Jay looked at him. His cheeks were pink, like they had been on that day.

“But that was when we were kids,” he said. “I didn’t really know you back then. I got to know you slowly over years after that, the way you have an incredible poker face, but also aren’t scared to speak your mind on what I think is just complete impulse. The way you never back down from a challenge, whether it’s throwing a stupid fun party, or testing into harder classes, or all the sports I made you join. The way you’re so willing to give people a chance just because they’re nice, it’s like you can see into their souls and you know who the good ones are. You and Evie were friends so quickly and I was jealous that you could do that, that you could just take down your walls for her even a little.”

“I don’t—“ Carlos started but Jay shook his head.

“You’re incredible, Carlos,” he said. “You got here and found what you wanted to do, and now you’re going after it even if it's the hardest thing you possibly could’ve chosen. And you spent all summer trying and trying even when people kept telling you no.” Jay chuckled, looking over at Carlos.

Carlos bit his lip as he started to smile. “You did the same thing, Jay, for your dad.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jay said. “Maybe you inspired me.” 

And Carlos laughed then, just a little, ducking his head bashfully. Jay nudged his shoulder with his own.

“I wanna be with you,” Jay said. “Not because I was in love with you when we were in school, or because I couldn’t shake it even after two years of us not being friends, but because I honestly love you right now, even though you look like shit and we got into a fight and I was mad at you. I love being near you, because you’re smart and funny and so fucking strong. And handsome and kind and yeah, okay, your smile is perhaps the most beautiful thing out there and maybe I’m still obsessed with it.”

Carlos looked up at Jay with wide eyes, then, now full of hope. Overflowing with the determined optimism Jay knew him for. “Okay,” he said.

“Okay?” Jay said with a laugh.

“Yeah, okay,” Carlos said, voice growing stronger. “I want to be with you to, Jay. I don’t think it’s going to be easy but, I do want it, so I want to work at it. We have to take it slow, though, okay? For real this time.”

“Of course,” Jay said with a relieved sigh.

“I’m serious,” Carlos said. “More talking, less kissing.”

Jay pulled a face. “I’m all for more talking but… _Less_ kissing?” And he laughed when Carlos shoved him, almost pushing him over completely. And Carlos grinned at him and Jay couldn’t hold back a grin himself. And even though it was the same Carlos who had grinned at him in the sixth grade, Jay fell in love with him anew. Carlos and his whole aura had been changed in the last ten years, through his time in Auradon, through all the trials they’d gone through together, through the hardships he went through on his own. 

He’d grown up, separate from Jay.

But Jay loved this grown up Carlos and his smile, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _그대를 만나고 바라보고  
>  (meeting you and looking at you)  
> 내 전불 맡기게 돼버린  
> (makes me give my all to you)  
> 이 모든 것이 꿈인 듯이  
> (all of this is like a dream)  
> 기적과도 같은 선물인 걸  
> (it’s a gift that’s like a miracle)  
> 그 긴 나의 어두움 속에 따스히 날 비춰주던  
> (in my long darkness, you warmly shined on me  
> 그대에게나 넘치는 이 맘  
> (so my heart overflows for you)  
> 모두 담아 보낼게  
> (i’ll give it all to you)_
> 
> _So sweet, answer like this._
> 
> -
> 
> thanks for following this journey i’m shaking i wrote smth so long... to be continued in part 3 luvs


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